Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: "Campbell's Island; on the debris at the base of precipices in the most exposed places . . . and in clefts of rock on the very summits of mountains." Type: K.

Rosette-lvs 10-20 × 4-5 mm., lamina obovate, obtuse, petiole short, broad; hairs on upper surface crowded, long, soft, silky, on under-surface fewer and disappearing with age. Lateral branches ∞, decumbent, up to 7 cm. long, occ. branched, internodes us. < lvs. Stem-lvs similar to rosette-lvs near base, becoming sessile above, bracts c. 5 × 2 mm. Cymes us. simple, few-fld, bracteate except at extreme tip, internodes, except the lowest, very short; pedicels c. 1 mm. long. Calyx c. 3 mm. long, lobes > 1/2 length, broad and subacute; hairs mostly very long and soft, a few short and closely appressed. Corolla blue (occ. white), 2-3 mm. diam., tube cylindric, 2 mm. long, lobes 1-1·5 mm. long, ± parallel-sided, narrowing above to obtuse tip; filaments very short, anthers < 1 mm., wholly included, tips not reaching scales; style < calyx, stigma clavate. Nutlets c. 1·5 × 1 mm., pointed.

DIST.: C. "Fairly common on most hills and talus slopes" Sorensen D.S.I.R. Cape Exped. Ser. Bull. 7, 1951, 32.

FL.- FT. 12-3.

Sorensen (loc. cit.) records both blue- and white-fld plants on Mt. Azimuth and Lyall Ridge, but only white-fld plants at sealevel. His white-fld specimens from Windlass Bay (W 2680, 2683) have short rather strigose hairs, many-fld cymes and smaller fls and seem better placed in M. pygmaea. Some white-fld plants from higher altitudes (e.g., Top of Mt. St. Col, W. B. Brockie) have the hairs of M. antarctica. Recorded from S. Patagonia by Skottsberg (Plant World 18, 1915, 136).