Flora of New Zealand Series

Veronica laingii Ckn. in Rep. bot. Surv. St. Id 1909, 44.

Type locality: Mt. Anglem, Stewart Id. Type: CM, L. Cockayne 9157; an isotype in W is without fls or frs and is diseased at tips.

Low shrub 10-25 cm. tall; stems decumbent or erect, often bare below and densely branched at tip. Ultimate branchlets, ∞ close-set, spreading, 1-3 cm. long, 2-2.5 mm. diam., ± tetragonous, not or scarcely glossy; internodes 1-1·5-(2) mm. long, often partly exposed; nodal joint well-marked. Lvs 1·5-2-(2·5) mm. long, connate for 1/3 to 1/2 length, ovate- deltoid, thick, strongly concavo-convex, tip ± subacute, slightly keeled, appressed or ± spreading, at least when dry. Spikes c. 1 cm. long, c. 8-fld. Bracts c. 2 mm. long, ovate, subacute, ± keeled. Calyx 2-2∙5 mm. long, anterior lobes ovate-oblong, subacute, slightly ribbed, free up to ⅔ length. Corolla-tube = or > calyx. Mature capsules not seen.

DIST.: S. Fiordland. St. Subalpine wet herbfield and tussock.

A poorly understood sp. Cockayne and Allan (loc. cit.) remarked: "Apparently a distinct simple species recorded only from the summit of Mt. Anglem, but will probably be found to occur in Fiordland." Simpson and Thomson (T.R.S.N.Z. 75, 1945, 193) recorded H. laingii from Wilmot Pass and McKinnon Pass and compared it with H. hectori, noting "Superficially the plants are not unlike, but H. hectori is much the taller and more vigorous species." A supporting specimen (BD 63349, Mt. Murrell) is a small scrap not very clearly different from H. h ectori. Some Fiordland collections (e.g. from Mt. Alexander, Caswell Sound) are certainly very different from the usual form of H. hectori and match Stewart Id material quite well, but many other specimens are difficult to place clearly in either sp. The extent to which habitat may be responsible for the differences is not known. Mt. Anglem material itself is not uniform; Cockayne's specimens have rather elongated blackish branchlets with internodes 1∙5-2 mm. long and lvs widely spreading, while some later collections have yellowish branchlets with smaller, more close-set, appressed lvs.