Flora of New Zealand Series

Veronica macrantha Hook. f. Handbk N.Z. Fl. 1864, 213.

Rather straggling shrub, the woody branches few, erect or spreading, c. 30 cm. long and 5 mm. or more diam. Branchlets glab. except for minute pubescence near tips, length of internodes little > diam. Lvs ± spreading, 1·5-3 cm. long, elliptic to suborbicular, coriac., lamina narrowing cuneately into distinct petiole; lamina obtuse to subacute, glab. except for ephemeral pubescence near base, margin thickened, regularly bluntly toothed. Infls lateral, simple, to 5 cm. long; peduncle < lf, pubescent. Fls 2-6, the lowest two opp. Bracts 3-7 mm. long, narrow linear-oblong, obtuse, coriac. like lvs, ciliolate; pedicels < bracts. Calyx-lobes 7-(10) × 3 mm., narrow-ovate, acuminate, finely glandular-ciliolate, pubescent within. Corolla white, tube < calyx, lobes 6-10 × 6-10 mm., rounded and all about equal. Capsule to 11 × 7 mm., acute, much compressed across the very narrow septum, glab. Seeds circular, flat.