Flora of New Zealand Series

Low, spreading subshrub, with mound-forming habit. Stems slender, semi-trailing, often reddish on upper side, somewhat tuberculate. Lvs sessile, greenish in bud, c. 4-8-(10) × 0.5-0.8-(1) cm, linear-lanceolate, membranous, obscurely glandular, entire or with a few narrow dentate teeth towards base and apex; apex subacute. Fls 1-2; pedicels 4-5 mm long at anthesis. Calyx 5-7 × 2 mm, linear-lanceolate. Corolla 6-8 mm long, narrow-campanulate, mauve, without dark dots, white-bearded inside; lobes slightly < tube, with anterior lobe usually widest. Style glabrous. Drupe c. 9 × 10 mm, subglobose, often white below and reddish purple on exposed side.

N.: previously known from 2 coastal localities between Raglan and Kawhia, now apparently extinct.

Also indigenous to Australia.

Rock ledges on steep cliffs, sometimes in scrub.

FL Jan-May.

The sp. M. debile is occasionally cultivated in N.Z. The sp. probably belongs in the genus Eremophila R. Br. (R. J. Chinnock, pers. comm.).