Scutellaria minor Huds.
skull-cap
Slender-stemmed perennial herb with short rhizomes. Aerial stems to c. 20 cm long, lax, green, puberulent, especially on the angles. Petiole 2-3 mm long, green. Lamina 7-20 × 4-10 mm, membranous, puberulent on veins below, with hairs scattered above, entire; lowest lvs ovate to suborbicular; mid and upper lvs lanceolate or linear-lanceolate; base truncate to rounded. Fls in axillary pairs; bracts subtending upper pairs of fls small, ± linear. Pedicels 1-1.5 mm long at anthesis, glandular-hairy. Calyx c. 1.5 mm long at anthesis, glandular-hairy; scale c. 0.5 mm long, accrescent. Corolla 7-8 mm long to apex of lower lip, whitish or pale pink, with prominent pinkish purple spots inside lower lip, glandular-puberulent outside; tube 4.5-5.5 mm long, slightly curved upwards, ampliate; lower lip > upper lip, 3-lobed with middle lobe broad; upper lip deeply emarginate. Filaments ± pilose, the longer pair > style. Ovules seated on orange gynophore. Nutlets not seen.
S.: known from only one recently discovered population - scattered plants in a sphagnum bog between Lake Kaniere and Kaniere township (inland from Hokitika, Westland).
W. and C. Europe 1988
FL Jan-Mar.
S. minor is closely related to S. racemosa Pers. from C. and S. America, which is distinguished from S. minor by being glabrous and having hastate lower lvs. Both spp., as well as the indigenous S. novae-zelandiae, belong to sect. Galericularia.
