Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Mt. Hikurangi, E. Coast, 5300 ft. Type: W, 2310A, D. Petrie, Jany 1897.

Primary root very short-lived. Stem unbranched, dying at base as it grows upward, sts several cm. long, clothed with long fine hairs; adventitious roots ∞ from amongst old lf-bases. Lvs rosulate, of firm texture, 1-4 cm. × 6-10 mm., lamina elliptic, tapering to short broad petiole; tip broad, obtuse, margin almost entire; hairs long, many-celled, rather sparse, mostly near margin, leaving midrib and whole underside of lf glab.; 2 lateral veins sts visible when pressed. Scapes up to 8 cm. long, terete, thinly pilose. Spike < 1 cm. long, with 4-8 crowded fls. Bracts 2.5-3 mm. long, broad at base, narrow above, obtuse to subacute, keel rather narrow and raised, glab.; sepals 2.5-3 mm. long, ovate, subacute to obtuse, keel occupying c. ⅓ of width, raised, glab. Corolla-tube short, lobes ovate, c. 1·5 × 1 mm.; anthers ?; ovules 4-(5?); capsule c. 3 mm. long, rounded, seeds 1-4, mostly full length of loculus.

DIST.: N., S. Mt. Hikurangi southwards in mountain districts, herbfield turf or on rocks.

FL. 12-1. FT. 1-2.

The above description is drawn up directly from the type specimen and other plants of the same gathering. In more southerly localities there are differences in size of whole plant and of infl., in hairiness of lvs, in numbers of ovules, etc. that are certainly not all direct responses to habitat; these await resolution. All differ fundamentally from P. triantha with which they have hitherto been associated (and from the closely allied P. barbata of S. America) in that the primary root dies early and there is no taproot developed; texture, shape and indumentum of lvs also distinguish the mainland from the Auckland Is plants. In its adventitious root system, thickly hairy main stem, long lf-hairs and some floral details P. novae-zelandiae resembles P. lanigera and P. uniflora which differ in simpler infls, narrow corolla-lobes, us. larger ovule-numbers, and in several lf-characters. The Australian P. muelleri Pilger (P. stellaris F. Muell. non Salisb.) differs in glab. lvs broadest at the middle and cuneately narrowed above to the narrow obtuse tip; P. tasmanica Hook. f. has short lf-hairs, us. cop., and longer spikes.

Hooker (Fl. N.Z. 1, 1854, 207) did not distinguish Ruahine specimens like those here called P. novae-zelandiae from Auckland Is plants, placing all under P. carnosa R. Br. (═ P. triantha Spreng.). Cheeseman in 1906 (Man. N.Z. Fl. 572) included both mainland and subantarctic plants under P. brownii Rapin, but pointed out several differences; in 1909 (Subantarct. Is N.Z. 2, 426) he considered that the Auckland Is plant "should be regarded as a distinct species" from the N.Z. mountain plant, but in 1925 (Man. N.Z. Fl. 852) he retained both under P. brownii as he had "seen specimens quite intermediate in character", and he repeated his composite description. Cockayne noted that the subantarctic plant was not closely related to the mainland sp. (Veg. N.Z. ed. 2, 1928, 337) referring to the latter as "the so-called P. brownii" (loc. cit. 287) and as "still another mixture" (loc. cit. 225).