Flora of New Zealand Series

Veronica armstrongii var. annulata Petrie in T.N.Z.I. 45, 1913, 273.

V. annulata (Petrie) Ckn. ex Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 41.

Type: W, 5347, L. Cockayne 7617, 13 March 1912.

Low spreading shrub 10-15 cm. high, sts rather open and straggling; branches mostly decumbent or arching and densely branched on upper side, sts erect and evenly plumosely branched. Ultimate branchlets close-set, spreading, 2-3 cm. long, 1·5-2 mm. diam., terete, softly flexible when fresh, yellow-green, not glossy; internodes 1-1·5 mm. long, partly exposed; nodal joint obscure except in old stems. Lvs 0·75-1 mm. long, connate for 1/3 to 1/2 length to form short sheathing collar, appressed and thinly fleshy when fresh, slightly spreading when dry, strongly concavo-convex, apex truncate or slightly rounded, sts with small incurved, sub-acute tip, margins membr., yellow. Spikes 4-10-fld, bracts and calyx us. red-tinged. Bracts c. 1 mm. long, obtuse or truncate. Calyx 2-2.5 mm. long, anterior lobes completely fused into broad-oblong, truncate or emarginate seg. Corolla-tube ± = calyx. Capsule c. 3 × 1·5 mm., oval, obtuse, much > calyx.

DIST.: S. Rock-face of northern slope of Takitimu Mts at 900 m. altitude.

The type sheet bears Petrie's note: "Veronica Armstrongii, T. Kirk var. annulata, Petrie. I do not see that this differs sufficiently from V. Armstrongii to be constituted a distinct species." It could also be regarded as a reduced var. of H. salicornioides. The sp. is known definitely only from the type locality, but a collection from the Kurow Mts (A 8251) referred by Petrie to H. armstrongii appears to consist partly of H. annulata.

Cockayne's original label and his later fuller one on the type sheet both bear the number 7617. Another sheet in W which appears to be part of the same collection has a similar but fuller label copied out at a later date and annotated "as sent to Cheeseman Manual ed. 2" but is numbered, probably by error, 6717. But there is also a collection of H. armstrongii from a cultivated plant labelled 7617, 7616 having been crossed out.