Flora of New Zealand Series

Erect herb 15-95 cm tall, with numerous leafy stolons from base, strigillose; the infl. often densely strigillose, and often also with erect glandular or eglandular hairs. Stems hairy all round or only along elevated lines running down from the subsessile lvs. Lamina of lf linear to ovate, 0.5-4 × 0.15-1.8 cm. Floral tube 0.6-1.8 mm deep, usually with a conspicuous ring of long hairs inside. Petals rose-purple or white, 3.5-13.5 × 2-7 mm. Capsule moderately to densely strigillose, often also glandular, 3-7.5 cm long; fruiting pedicel 0.6-2 cm long.

N.; S.; St.; Ch.

Also indigenous to Australia.

Wet or dry places, sea level to 300-(900) m.

FL Dec-Feb.

The 3 subspp. are distributed as follows: subsp. billardiereanum : N.: scattered around the coast, very rare inland; S.: rare and very scattered; St.; Ch. Coastal ponds and marshy places, often with Juncus, occasionally along uppermost edge of saline meadows. (Also indigenous to Australia). This subsp. was treated by Allan (1961) as E. billardiereanum Ser.   subsp. cinereum (A. Rich.) Raven et Engelhorn : N.: throughout but no material seen from Taranaki; S.: common in Marlborough, S.E. Nelson, and Canterbury, coastal Otago; St.; Ch. Dry banks in open bush country or scrub, sea level to 300-(900) m. (Also indigenous to Australia). This subsp. was treated by Allan (1961) as E. cinereum A. Rich. subsp. intermedium Raven et Engelhorn : N.: N. and S. Auckland; S.: Banks Peninsula, 1 collection from Otago. Moist lowland places. (Also indigenous to Australia). Raven and Raven (op. cit.) expressed doubts about the status of this subsp. in N.Z. and these are strengthened by observations of a population at Purau, Banks Peninsula. This is the only known recent occurrence in the country and plants of subsp. billardiereanum and subsp. cinereum grow in the vicinity. Thus there is a strong possibility that the plants of intermediate character corresponding to subsp. intermedium in N.Z. are really hybrids.

Elsewhere in N.Z., subsp. billardiereanum and subsp. cinereum grow together and seem to remain quite distinct. Usually, however, these 2 subspp. do not grow in close proximity, subsp. billardiereanum favouring moist habitats and subsp. cinereum dry ones. This, coupled with the obvious morphological differences in indumentum and lf shape given in the key, has meant that N.Z. botanists have not generally accepted them as being conspecific. However, Raven and Raven stressed that in Australia there are fully fertile populations of hybrid origin (referred to subsp. intermedium) that intergrade completely with subsp. billardiereanum and subsp. cinereum in some areas but remain distinct in others. Also they pointed out that in cultivation the N.Z. entities have proved fully interfertile.