Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Terraces by the Clarence River near Lake Tennyson. Type: A, 7533, "F. W. Laing".

Rosette-lvs few, 8-15 × 1-2 cm., lamina elliptic-oblong, very gradually tapering into long winged petiole, tip acuminate to mucronate; hairs short, fine, appressed, not overlapping, on undersurface similar but fewer, longer on sheathing If-bases. Lateral branches erect, 15-40 cm. long, internodes mostly < lvs. Stem-lvs few, uppermost c. 25 X7 mm., ± oblong, subacute; hairs as on rosette-lvs but longer. Cymes simple, ebracteate, c. 12-fld; internodes > calyx in fr.; pedicels c. 2 mm. long. Calyx 5-6 mm. long, lobes > 1/2 length, narrow, acute; hairs crowded, on lobes long and flexuous, towards base shorter and some hooked. Corolla yellow (fide Cheeseman), 8-10 mm. diam., tube funnelform and 5-7 mm. long, lobes c. 4 × 3 mm., ± oblong; filaments fixed about level of scales, anthers c. 2 mm. long, wholly above scales; style very slender, > 2 × calyx in fr., stigma capitate. Nutlets not seen.

DIST.: S. Lake Tennyson; Kaikoura Mountains.

Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 758) says: "Evidently closely allied to my M. laeta, but differing in the much taller stems and much larger flowers." The hairs on the lvs offer further points of difference, but those on the calyx are very similar. Cheeseman also remarks on the resemblance of these two spp. to M. goyenii in the form of the widely flaring corolla-tube.

Like M. laeta, M. laingii is known only from a few herbarium specimens and has not been collected recently.