Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: "On a small islet lying near the shore between Gable-end Foreland and Tolaga Bay". Type: W, "Island near Gable End Foreland. H. Hill", Herb. Colenso (labelled in Cheeseman's hand "Plantago Brownii Rapin. Type of P. picta Colenso"); portion of type gathering at K.

Primary root and similar branch roots from near stem-base long-lived, apparently no adventitious roots from amongst old lf-bases. Stem up to 2 cm. diam., short, simple, with cop. brown hairs. Rosette flat, 5-15 cm. diam; lvs 3·5-7 × 1-1·5 cm.; lamina oblanceolate to spathulate, petiole broad and flat; tip obtuse to subacute, margin entire or with a few widely-spaced teeth; lf-hairs few, mostly on upper surface in small groups near margins; 2 lateral veins. Scape up to 7 cm. long, terete, hairy; spike 1-3 cm. long, dense. Bracts c. 3 mm. long, broadly ovate, dark except for narrow pale membr. border, margin strongly ciliate, otherwise glab.; sepals c. 3 mm. long, with wide dark keel, glab. except for strongly ciliate margin. Corolla-tube short, lobes broad-ovate, 2 × 1·5 mm.; anthers large, up to 1·75 mm. long; ovules 4; capsule 3 mm. long, broad above, in each loculus two narrow seeds up to 2.5 mm. long.

DIST.: N. Known certainly only from the east coast.

In Herb. D. Petrie at W are two other specimens referable to P. picta : (a) "Hawke's Bay, W. Colenso", sharing the label with a plant of P. spathulata; (b) a fine fruiting specimen "cliffs of E. Cape Island, Feby 1905, L. Cockayne", the gathering referred to by Pilger (Pflanzenr. 102, 1937, 118) as Cockayne n. 2354. This is probably "P. viridis Ckn. ined." referred to in Veg. N.Z. ed. 1, 1921, 81, 302, 357.

Puzzling plants approaching this sp. have been collected in the Westport district (Upper Waimangaroa, P. G. Morgan, 12/4/1912, W 2312) and in N.W. Nelson (Gouland Downs, W. B. Brockie, Jan. 1955, BD 87631; Cobb Valley, J. A. Hay, 4.1.51, BD 73437); these resemble P. picta and P. spathulata in having two long seeds in each loculus and broad corolla-lobes (anthers in Gouland Downs plant are large also); bracts, as in P. picta, are glab. with ciliolate margins, but the cilia are rather few and short; sepals are either glab. or with a few cilia on margin or keel; spikes are only c. 1 cm. long in the Waimangaroa and Cobb specimens, lvs 6·5 cm. (including long petiole) × 8-10 mm., with hairs abundant on upper surface, scattered on lower; the Gouland Downs plant, grown at Otari, Wellington, has spikes to 2 cm. long, lvs 6·5 cm. × 11 mm., lf-hairs confined to the upper surface where they occupy a narrow zone just within the margin.