Flora of New Zealand Series

Perennial, glabrous except for distinctive pale clavate hairs on pedicels and slender hairs on sepals. Stems spreading to erect, stout, barely flexuous, 20-50 cm tall. Lvs all similar, oblanceolate-spathulate, sharply and finely serrate, cuneately narrowed to broad flat petiole about = lamina, 1.5-5-(7) × 0.5-0.8-(1.5) cm. Racemes terminal on short leafy branchlets, 2-6 cm long; pedicels erecto-patent, 5-8 mm long at fruiting. Sepals c. 1.5 × 1 mm. Petals white, narrowly obovate, c. = sepals. Stamens 4. Silicle broadly ovate, notched at apex, slightly winged, 5-5.5 × 4-5 mm; style very short; stigma slightly > notch. Seeds broadly ovoid, brown, narrowly winged, c. 2.5 × 2 mm.

S.: Nelson (Totaranui, Boulder Bank, Waimea Estuary).

Endemic

Coastal stony and rocky sites.

L. banksii is a very rare plant which has only been collected at 2 sites in recent years, near Totaranui in Abel Tasman National Park.