Flora of New Zealand Series

type: Oliver (loc. cit. 1952, 13) gives "Type from Dusky Sound, collected by A. Menzies, 1791, in Kew Herbarium." In the type (and only?) folder at K are two sheets, each from "Port Preservation", collected by Lyall, each with fruiting panicle; sheath c. 2 cm. long, lamina ± 18 × 1 cm. I did not find a Menzies specimen.

Low spreading to erect shrub up to 2 m. or more tall; branches us. several, robust; bark greyish; branchlets stout. Lvs crowded near tips of branchlets, patent to ± reflexed, rigid, very coriac.; sheath glab., ± 25 × 20 mm., gradually tapering into lamina 10-15-(20) × 1·5-2 cm.; margins serrulate to crenulate; apex gradually tapering to fine point. Panicle ± 7·5-12 cm. long, stout, drooping, on short stout stalk, arising below lvs; sts in whorls of 3, sts almost reduced to racemes; rhachis pubescent. Bracts short, broad, ovate, suddenly contracted to sharp point. Fls c. 8-9 mm. long on short curved pubescent pedicels. Sepals 1·5-2 mm. long, broad-ovate, subacute. Corolla-tube c. 6 mm. long, subcampanulate; lobes c. 2-3 mm. long, oblong, obtuse, reflexed. Anthers us. included. Capsule 5-7-valved, (4)-5-6 mm. long, depressed-globose.

DIST.: S., St. Upper montane to subalpine shrubland, herbfield, mainly western Otago to Fiordland. Type locality and

Oliver (loc. cit. 1929, 705) notes: "I have seen several specimens with terminal panicles, but in all cases the branches bearing them were thin, and in cases where there were two or more branches on the same stem it was evident that the main leafy axis had been lost. Evidently therefore these branches with terminal panicles are really lateral branches which have elongated after the death of the central stem, the leaves below the panicle sharing the increase in size. The bracts are short, broad, ovate, and suddenly contracted to a sharp point. On the small panicle-bearing branches every gradation can be found between bracts and leaves."