Epilobium elegans Petrie
Type locality: Mount Kyeburn. Type: Herb. Petrie in W, coll. Petrie.
Stems simple or very sparingly branched, slender, 5-15 cm. long, rooting at lowest nodes then erect or ascending; bifariously pubescent. Lvs opp. crowded and overlapping in lower part, alt. in floral region, sessile or nearly so. Lamina 10-12-(20) × 2-4 mm.; linear to narrow-elliptic to narrow-lanceolate, obtuse to subacute, thin, light green, glab.; margins very obscurely denticulate to entire. Fls solitary or few, up to ± 8 mm. diam.; calyx-lobes linear to very narrow-ovate; petals white, deeply lobed, ± twice length of calyx. Capsules glab., reddish to pale brown, narrowed at apex, 20-30 mm. long; peduncles elongating to 5 cm. or more at maturity. Seeds smooth.
DIST.: S. Lowland to montane grassland from Mount Torlesse and Broken River to Central Otago.
FL.- FT. 10-2.
Hardly distinguishable from E. tenuipes except by the larger fls, and needs further study. Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 617) places the name as a synonym of E. novae-zelandiae, remarking "Its position with regard to Petrie's E. elegans also demands fuller enquiry." From the specimens seen by me there appears no justification in placing elegans near novae-zelandiae.
