Flora of New Zealand Series

Veronica townsonii Cheesem. in T.N.Z.I. 45, 1913, 95.

V. macrocarpa var. crassifolia Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 1906, 505.

Type locality: Karamea Hill. Type: A, 7799, W. Townson.

Erect, rather fastigiately branched shrub to 2.5 m. tall. Branchlets glab., length of internodes c. 3 × diam. Lvs ± erect, 3-8 × 0·5-1 cm., linear-lanceolate, coriac., glab., bright green above, notably duller beneath; lf-bud with long sinus; lamina subacute, entire, margins cartilaginous, slightly revolute; undersurface with regular series of short oblique domatia just within margin. Infls lateral, simple (occ. with subsidiary racemes in lowest bracts in cultivated plants), 3-12 cm. long; peduncle relatively short, almost glab. Fls not crowded, pedicels c. 3 mm. (elongating to 6 mm. in fr.), us. < linear acute ciliolate bracts. Calyx-lobes 3-5 mm. long, narrow, subacute to acute, ciliolate. Corolla white, tube c. 2 mm. long and broad, lobes c. 6 mm. long. Capsule erect, 4-5 × 2.5-3 mm., acute, us. < 2 × calyx.

DIST.: N. Mt. Messenger, Taranaki. S. North and south of Westport.

FL. (7)-9-11.

"Apparently a distinct simple species distinguished from all other forms of Hebe by the two rows of domatia on the back of the leaf contiguous to the margin".