Flora of New Zealand Series

Veronica birleyi N. E. Brown in Kew Bull. 1911, 345.

V. grahamii Petrie in T.N.Z.I. 45, 1913, 273.

Type locality: Mt. Bonpland, Lake Wakatipu. Type: K, Miss L. S. Gibbs No. 1172, Feb. 1908. Type of V. grahamii : W, 5121, Copeland Pass, P. Graham.

Sparsely branched straggling subshrub forming patches up to 2 dm. diam.; branches decumbent then ascending, up to 15 cm. or more long, 2-3 mm. diam., somewhat fleshy when fresh, finely hairy at tips but ± glab. with greyish papery bark in older parts. Lvs us. crowded, somewhat fleshy and reddish when fresh, black when dry, sessile or narrowed into short broad petiole, 6-9-(12) × 4-9 mm., cuneate- to broad-obovate, crenately 3-5-(7)-lobed at tip with broad obtuse central lobe, densely pubescent on both surfaces with fine stiff hairs sts mixed with glandular hairs. Infls 1-2-(3)-fld, ± glandular-hairy in all parts; peduncles up to 3 mm. long; bracts 4-5 mm. long, linear-spathulate, entire, obtuse; pedicels 1-1·5 mm. long, < bracts. Calyx-lobes 5-6 mm. long, oblong, obtuse, glandular-hairy. Corolla white, 12-20 mm. diam.; tube short, < calyx, lobes 5-(6). Capsule 5 × 4·5 mm., < or = calyx, broadly obcordate, compressed, glab.

DIST.: S. Ranges in the Mt. Cook district, Haast Pass, Olivine Range, mountains near Lake Wakatipu. Rock-clefts, 2000-3000 m. altitude.