Flora of New Zealand Series

Veronica arborea Buchan. in T.N.Z.I. 6, 1874, 242.

V. parviflora var. arborea (Buchan.) Kirk in T.N.Z.I. 28, 1896, 527.

Type: OM, Herb. Buchanan.

Small tree 3-7·5 m. tall, when young perfectly dome-shaped. Ultimate twigs bearing fascicles of lvs near their ends. Lvs erect or reflexed, 2.5-3·5 cm. × 4 mm., linear-lanceolate, acute. Infls dense-fld, seldom > lvs. Calyx-lobes ovate, obtuse. Corolla c. 4 mm. diam. Capsule c. 3 mm. long, swollen, c. 2 × calyx.

DIST.: N. Original locality: "neighbourhood of Wellington".

The above details are taken from Buchanan's description. This arborescent grey-branched Hebe of peculiarly attractive habit is still a feature of some steep hillsides about Wellington city and on the Rimutaka Range, though trunks are us. much less than the "3 feet diameter" mentioned by Buchanan; there is considerable range in lf-size and infls are nearly always > lvs, at least in fr.

Banks and Solander's unpublished description of their V. floribunda ("arbor parva, vix viginti pedalis, tota glabra, coma subrotunda, sub statu florescentiae spicis fere tecta") could well apply to  var. arborea, but they do not stress the extreme closeness of the ultimate branching which gives such character to the Wellington plant; as mentioned above, one of their specimens, perhaps not necessarily from the tree described, has the lf-margin character of var. angustifolia, whereas in lvs from most trees examined the margin is pubescent, though very minutely.

Trees of this group are apparently rare in South Id, the only record apart from that of Banks and Solander being of an openly branched one observed on a river-flat at Woodside Gorge on the Marlborough east coast in 1958 (BD 76143). In North Id narrow-lvd Hebe trees to 7 m. tall are known from Whangarei Heads, Hen and Chickens Is, Great Barrier Id, Bay of Plenty, near the coast from Cape Runaway southwards, and inland on forest edges and river-flats in the central high country. Most are much more openly branched than  var. arborea sens. strict., and there is considerable range in colour of branchlets, size of lvs (to 7 cm. long), length of racemes, and in size and tube-length of corolla. Most have, like  var. arborea sens. strict., a minutely pubescent lf-margin and this and a very narrow whitish lf-tip us. distinguish the young of any of the tree forms from those that remain shrubby.