Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: "Northern Island. East coast on rocks and in sand." Type: K, Pahawa, in deep gravel, and in stony cliffs, seaside, Colenso 191, 1847. A small specimen from Pahawa in Herb. Colenso at W has almost entire lvs with hairs scattered over undersurface.

Primary root short-lived; adventitious roots ∞, cord-like, from stout erect unbranched subterranean stem; stem-hairs brown. Rosettes us. flat, up to 20 cm. diam.; lvs of firm texture, 3-10 × 1-2.5 cm.; lamina elliptic to spathulate, gradually narrowed into broad flat petiole; tip quite obtuse, margin almost entire, distantly toothed, or with small rounded pinnate lobes; lf-hairs short and stiff, sts only near margins or in transverse patches or lines on upper surface associated with teeth, us. absent on undersurface or confined there to midrib (occ. over whole undersurface); two lateral veins us. obvious at least in lower half of lamina. Scape 3-12-(22) cm. long, terete, covered with short appressed hairs. Spike up to 3 cm. long, us. dense, many-fld and much longer than wide but occ. reduced to 2-3 fls. Bracts c. 3 mm. long, ovate, subacute, keel wide and ill-defined, ± hoary with short white hairs, as is also margin; sepals c. 3 mm. long, ovate, subacute, pale and membr., keel well-developed and bearing short white hairs, margin fringed or ciliate at apex. Corolla-tube short, lobes broad-ovate, 2 × 1·5 mm.; anthers large, to 1·75 mm. long with membr. tip; ovules 4; capsule > calyx, broad above; seeds to 2 mm. long, all reaching to top of capsule.

DIST.: N. On the coast from Hawke's Bay to Cape Palliser. S. East of main divide from coast to 1000 m. altitude; common in damp spots in tussock-grassland.

FL. 10-2. FT. 1-4.