Flora of New Zealand Series

Veronica trifida Petrie in T.N.Z.I. 55, 1924, 437 non Gilib. Fl. lituan. 1, 1785, 121.

Type locality: "Titan Ridge, near the Blue Lake, Garvie Mountains, Southland, circa 4,500 ft." Type: W, 5120, Jas. Speden and H. L. Darton, Jan. 1923.

Prostrate or decumbent subshrub forming extensive loose patches; stems up to c. 1 m. long but us. less, laxly branched, ± prostrate, clad in pale papery bark and dead lvs in older parts, rooting along most of their length with lfy ascending tips and branches 5-10 cm. long, densely clad in retrorse white hairs. Lvs very close-set, ± 4-9 × 2-5 mm., oblanceolate to obovate in outline, entire or with 1-(2) pairs of narrow acute teeth, acute to subacute at apex, cuneately narrowed to sessile ciliate subsheathing base, glab. or sparsely glandular-ciliate, glossy, very coriac., rugose, blackish when dry. Infls 1-3-fld, densely glandular-hairy in all parts; peduncles 2-10 mm. long; bracts linear-obovate, entire, c. 6 mm. long; pedicels c.4 mm. long, us. < bracts. Calyx c. 6-7 mm. long, glandular-hairy; lobes linear-spathulate, obtuse, occ. a slender fifth lobe present. Corolla white, 15-20 mm. diam.; tube c. 2-3 mm. long, < calyx; lobes 5, up to 8 mm. long, broadly rounded. Capsule c. 4-6 × 3-4 mm., < calyx, narrow-obcordate, compressed, sparsely glandular near apex.

DIST.: S. Cecil Peak, Hector Mts, Garvie Mts, Old Man Range. Wet ground at edges of snow-drifts.