Flora of New Zealand Series

Logania armstrongii Buchan. in T.N.Z.I. 14, 1882, 347, t. 28, f. 3.

Veronica uniflora Kirk in T.N.Z.I. 28, 1896, 522.

Hebe uniflora (Kirk) Ckn. et Allan in T.N.Z.I. 57, 1926, 43.

Type locality: Hector's Col, Mt. Aspiring. Type: OM, Buchanan and McKay, 1881.

Low, much-branched, rigid, prostrate shrub with ascending branches 1·5-3 cm. tall and c. 5 mm. diam. including lvs. Lvs densely quadrifariously imbricate, closely appressed, 3·5-4 × 2-2*5 mm., ± ovate, subacute, coriac., ± concavo-convex, margins thickened above, ciliate in lower part, inner surface bearing small patch of hairs near apex and sts a few at tip when young. Calyx c. 4 mm. long, cut c. 3/4 way into slender lobes hispid on outer surface and margins. Corolla c. 5 mm. diam., funnelform. Ovary ciliate near apex. Capsule not seen.

DIST.: S.

POLYMORPHY AND HYBRIDISM

The spp. are still imperfectly known. Variation in lf-shape and in kind, amount and distribution of lf-hairs occurs in all the cushion-forming spp., and they can be most easily identified if several are available for comparison. It is uncertain to what extent habitat can affect lf-hairiness. Hybridism could be a factor complicating relations between P. thomsonii and P. pulvinaris where they overlap, but it has not been reported. P. armstrongii may be the result of a cross between P. tetragona and a cushion-forming sp.

Of doubtful status and known certainly only from the original collection. The above description has been drawn up from (a) the type material in the Buchanan Herb. (OM) which consists of a few small pieces without locality or collector and mixed with a piece of P. tetragona, and (b) a closely matching packet of scraps in the Kirk Herb. V. dasyphylla folder (W) labelled "Otago, J. Buchanan". In many respects the plants are intermediate between P. tetragona, and the cushion-forming spp. - the decussate lf-arrangement and funnelform corolla resembling the former, while the small, densely imbricate, appressed lvs with a few hairs on the inner surface and sts the tip and the slender hispid calyx-lobes and hairy ovary are characters more in common with the latter.

Simpson and Thomson (T.R.S.N.Z. 72, 1942, 31) report that the type locality (now called Matukituki Saddle) has been searched on several occasions without success but agree that Buchanan's specimens "do not match, even nearly, any specimens or plants of V. dasyphylla we have seen." Small forms of P. tetragona have erroneously been identified as V. uniflora by many later collectors, but a collection so labelled from Mt. Turner, Lake Wanaka (BD 56594, A. Wall) approaches the type material quite closely. These specimens have ovate-triangular lvs ciliate in lower part, calyx 2-3 mm. long, cut c. halfway, with densely white-hispid lobes and narrow almost glab. tube, corolla 7-8 mm. long, cut scarcely halfway, capsule 2 × 2·75 mm.; but they differ from Buchanan's specimens in the lvs being glab. or only rarely with a few hairs and in the glab. capsule.