Flora of New Zealand Series

Veronica cockayniana Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 1906, 522.

V. willcoxii Petrie in T.N.Z.I. 45, 1913, 272.

Hebe willcoxii (Petrie) Ckn. et Allan loc. cit. 34.

Type locality: "Humbolt Mts, Lake Wakatipu, 1120 m." Type: A, 8054, L. Cockayne No. 7949, 19/2/97, 1588 to Kew.

Erect much-branched shrub to 1 m. tall. Branchlets rather stout, bifariously pubescent with harsh, sts golden hairs; internodes scarcely longer than broad, lf-scars on older twigs very rough. Lvs suberect to spreading, sts distichous, 10-17 × 5-8 mm., elliptic-oblong, coriac., shining above, glaucous below except on prominent midrib and slightly thickened margin; lf-bud with narrow sinus; lamina subacute, entire, glab. except for few minute hairs above midrib when young; petiole very short and winged to its rather broad base. Infls lateral, simple, to 2∙5 cm. long; peduncle short, hairy-pubescent. Fls very shortly pedicelled in axils of equally short ciliolate bracts. Calyx-lobes c. 2 mm. long, subacute, ciliolate. Corolla white, tube not > calyx, lobes much longer, rounded. Capsule to 5 mm. long, erect, acuminate, glab., dark.

DIST.: S. Mountains of Fiordland. Characteristic of subalpine scrub and grassland.

FL. 12-3.

H. willcoxii Petrie has as its type W 5361 "Top of Routeburn Valley, near Lake Wakatipu, Feb. 1911, D. Petrie".

Many collections from Nelson identified as H. cockayniana, including several so placed by Cheeseman, differ from the type, inter alia, in having lf-bud without sinus, and they are here regarded as belonging to a new sp. Only a few specimens resembling H. cockayniana have been seen from localities outside Fiordland: A 8053, Mt. Murchison, Buller Valley, 3000 ft., W. Townson n. 586, attributed to this sp. by Cheeseman, differs little except in having pubescence above midrib and occ. small notches in the upper margin of the almost obovate lvs; BD 28894, Gordon's Pyramid, Nelson, R. Mason, 17.1.41, shows both these features but the toothing is slightly more obvious, as it is also in a plant brought from Mt. Peel, Nelson, by W. B. Brockie and growing at Otari Open Air Plant Museum.