Flora of New Zealand Series

H. elongate Buchan. in T.N.Z.I. 16, 1884, 395, t. 35.

Type locality: Otago Lake District, 4-6000 ft. Hector and Buchanan. Type: K.

Perennial dwarf shrub forming cushion 2-4 cm. deep. Branches fleshy, close-set, rooted below, ascending at tips, ending in flat lfy rosettes 10-15 mm. across. Lvs simple, exstipulate, not opp. but in close spiral, sessile, slightly sheathing at base, 5-8 mm. long, subulate, glab., almost fleshy, entire. Many fls produced simultaneously in one rosette, each terminal on a short axillary lateral bearing two stem lvs. Fls white, 7-8 mm. diam.; "prophylls" 2 mm. long, very broadly oblong with apiculus; per. segs united at very base, spathulate, apiculate; stamens with broad filaments reaching to top of per.; style simple, bearing two hastate stigma lobes that reach halfway up per.; ovary ovoid, 2 mm. long, style 1·3 mm., ovules 5. Fr. projecting beyond the persistent prophylls, globose, c. 3 mm. diam., surmounted by apiculus formed from persistent and hardened style base (stigma lobes often long-lasting but not hardened); pericarp smooth, almost fleshy, its substance slightly mucilaginous, without clearly defined valves, ind., the seeds escaping only as the wall disintegrates. Seeds us. < 5, c. 1·5 mm. diam., slightly flattened but rounded, without keel, black and shining.

DIST.: S. Southern Alps from Arthur Pass to Otago Mts, fell-field at and above 1200 m.

FL. 1-2. FT. 4-5.

Buchanan (T.N.Z.I. 14, 1882, 345) drew attention to "Flowers of two kinds, smallest with stamens only". Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. ed. 1, 1906, 72, and ed. 2, 1925, 428) states "Flowers . . . often unisexual, the staminate ones being the smallest". In cultivation in Wellington and in Christchurch plants blooming abnormally early in October bore imperfect fls, including some ♀, some ♂, most with members reduced in size or in numbers.