Flora of New Zealand Series

Tufted herb, sometimes rooting near the base, 4-20 cm tall. Stems erect, often reddish, with fine lines of strigillose or erect eglandular hairs decurrent from margins of petioles. Lamina of lf elliptic, 6-15 × 3-7 mm. Floral tube 0.4-0.8 mm deep, glabrous. Petals white, later flushed pink, 3.2-5 × 2.2-2.6 mm. Capsule glabrous, 1.5-2.3 cm long, usually subsessile, rarely pedicellate.

S.: throughout, 1400-2000 m, occasionally descending to 600 m in the southern portion of its range, frequent only in the vicinity of Mt Cook to the mountains of Otago.

Endemic.

Stable rock and debris.

FL Dec-Mar.

E. porphyrium is characterised by the dull purple or purplish green colour of all the vegetative parts. In addition, the capsule is purple or dark red. Raven and Raven noted that some plants treated by Allan (1961) as E. krulleanum Hausskn. should be referred to E. porphyrium.