Flora of New Zealand Series

Veronica hulkeana F. Muell. in Trans. bot. Soc. Edinburgh 7, 1863, 154.

Type locality: Recorded by Mueller as "In mountain forests towards New Plymouth, T. H. Hulke, Esq." but this must have been an error. Type: Nat. Herb. Vict., Melbourne?

Laxly branched half-woody shrub to c. 60 cm. tall. Branchlets pubescent with short retrorse hairs or quite glab.; length of internodes us. many × diam. Lvs spreading, 3-7-(10) × 1·5-3 cm. including narrowly winged petiole 1-1·5 cm. long; lamina oblong-elliptic to suborbicular, obtuse to subacute, subcoriac., glossy above, pale beneath, glab. or faintly pubescent on midrib; margin evenly serrate-dentate to sharply serrate. Infl. a broad terminal panicle to 20-(30) cm. long, us. with second order branching towards base; ultimate branchlets rather lax-fld spikes, sts 4-5 cm. long. Fls sessile, bracts to 2 mm. long, broad-ovate, acute, ciliolate. Calyx-lobes similar to bracts but larger and more obtuse, us. pubescent at base, us. 4 in number and overlapping. Corolla lavender to white, tube < calyx, lobes to 4 mm. long; style long and stigma distinctly lobed. Capsule erect, > calyx when mature, very turgid, glab.; seeds narrow-oblong, slightly winged, > 1/2 capsule-length.

DIST.: S. Marlborough; Mt. Grey, N. Canterbury, J. B. Armstrong, 1866, 1869. Rocky bluffs.

FL. 11-12.

Var. oblonga Kirk in T.N.Z.I. 28, 1896, 518. "Leaves narrow-oblong, fully 3 in. long including the petiole, coarsely toothed. South Island: Marlborough-Awatere; T. Kirk." Type: ? The only specimen seen labelled var. oblonga by Kirk is from Kowhai Creek, Kaikoura (W 5333); the largest lvs are 8·5 cm. long, the oblong-lanceolate lamina c. 6·5 × 1·6 cm. Mueller described lvs of the sp. as "long-stalked, subcordate-ovate, coarsely and almost doubly serrate, soon glabrous". Large lvs show a wide range of shape with lamina from oblong-lanceolate 8·5 × 2.5 cm. to suborbicular 4·5 × 3 cm. and coarse teeth are by no means confined to narrow lvs. Kirk's var. is not clearly separable.

Veronica fairfieldii Hook. f. in Bot. Mag. 49, 1893, t. 7323 was based on a plant "received, under that name, by my friend Dr. Balfour, from Mr. Martin of the Fairfield Nursery (New Zealand)" and the type from Edinburgh Botanic Garden, May 30, 1863, is in K. Hooker points out the affinities with V. hulkeana and V. lavaudiana and comments "it is in many ways so curiously intermediate between these two species as to suggest a hybrid origin . . . The short branches and the leaves . . . almost precisely accord with those of V. lavaudiana . . . the inflorescence and colour of the corolla are exactly those of V. hulkeana . . ." The figures show bract, calyx-lobes and capsule quite strongly pubescent, and a small fifth calyx-lobe is shown. Kirk (T.N.Z.I. 28, 1896, 518) treated this s a var. of V. hulkeana.