Flora of New Zealand Series

Small, matted shrublet; main stems slender, prostrate and rooting, with ascending tips c. 2-(5) cm long. Branchlets glabrous or with short, dense hairs. Lvs rather distant, alternate, 2-4 × 0.5-1.5 mm, elliptic or narrow-elliptic, usually rather thick, glabrous or densely hairy on upper surface; margins with up to 3 microscopic dentations on either side; veins prominent. Fls solitary in upper lf axils, axillary and terminal. Pedicels to 3 mm long, glabrous or nearly so, usually with 2 small basal bracts and 2 larger upper bracts. Bracts ovate; margins ciliate. Calyx lobes ciliate. Corolla glabrous inside. Stamens = style and nearly exserted; filaments ribbon-like, gradually widening at base, not papillose. Anthers 0.4-0.6 mm long, with distinct blunt awns about 0.1 mm long. Fr. a pink globose berry, 4-5 mm diam.

S.: N. Canterbury (Waimakariri R. basin), S. Canterbury (Tasman Valley, Lake Pukaki to Lake Ohau, Dobson R., also extending to the Hakataramea Pass), Otago (from north of Lake Wakatipu to the Old Man Range), c. 600-900 m but higher in Otago.

Endemic.

Montane to low-alpine open ground, short tussock, short turf, beech forest margins on valley floors, sometimes in bogs and seasonally wet places.

FL Nov-Feb.