Var. erecta
Type: BD 10805, "Stream entering Rangitata from south above gorge, H. H. Allan, 2.1.19. Erect form with close strict branches". Topotypes in A, W, and CM.
Erect and bushy, the stems ∞ and much-branched. Branchlets bifariously pubescent; lvs mostly barely cordate at base; bracts and calyx-lobes narrow with only sparse short cilia on margins and occ. on base; corolla-tube long.
DIST.: S. Known only from a few plants from the type locality, upper Rangitata River, on rocky outcrops at c. 350 m. altitude.
Var. suberecta Ckn. et Allan in T.N.Z.I. 56, 1926, 26, a "decumbent rock form", is represented by specimens in A, W, and CM collected by H. H. Allan on Mt. Peel, Canterbury, from 340 to 1200 m. altitude; 1275/2 in Herb. Carse (CM) is chosen as lectotype. These show some range in hairs on stems, bracts, calyx and capsules but all closely resemble Armstrong's type specimen from the Rangitata.
The geographical and morphological range of the sp. is not well known. Wall (Rec. Canterbury Mus. 4, 1935, 101) mentions specimens from Mt. Somers and from Mt. Bernard in the Waimakariri district. Garden plants in Herb. Petrie are said to have come from Lake Wakatipu and show some differences from Mt. Peel plants. Hooker f. in Bot. Mag. 50, 1894, t. 7370 illustrates a specimen from Edinburgh Botanic Garden with corolla not > calyx and some infls tripartite, the last a feature not seen elsewhere except in the type specimen. A specimen collected by A. E. Esler at Upper Pareora "shaded rocky faces, 2300 ft., 1954" has the foliage of H. amplexicaulis combined with almost glab. infls with peduncles 3 cm. long, pedicels and narrow bracts c. 3 mm. long, narrow acute scarcely ciliolate calyx-lobes, and glab. strongly didymous capsules. Allan (New Phytol. 23, 1924, 222) records that a plant experimentally subjected to excessive moisture and shade produced thin narrow petiolate lvs studded with capitate hairs.
