Flora of New Zealand Series

Veronica gibbsii Kirk in T.N.Z.I. 28, 1896, 524.

Type locality: Mt. Rintoul. Type: A, 8098 (ex Herb. Kirk).

Sparingly branched shrub 10-30 cm. tall. Branchlets stout, glab., remaining rough in age, length of internodes c. = diam. Lvs loosely imbricate, patent or deflexed, 10-18 × 6-12 mm., elliptic to ovate, thick and glaucous, ± red-edged; lf-bud without sinus, lf-base broad but not cordate; lamina subacute to obtuse, entire, glab. except for marginal fringe of long silky hairs; midrib obscure. Infls lateral, simple, peduncle villous, us. < lvs, spike broad, c. 1·5 cm. long. Fls sessile, bracts and calyx-lobes c. 3 mm. long, narrow-triangular, acute, fringed with long cilia, in some plants pubescent on outer surface. Corolla white, tube narrow, us. > calyx, = narrow spreading lobes. Capsule not greatly compressed, narrowed to subacute tip, dark, glab. to slightly pubescent, > calyx.

DIST.: S. Nelson Mts: Mt. Rintoul, Ben Nevis, F. G. Gibbs.

FL. 12-2.

No Kirk specimens of H. gibbsii have been found in W.

Specimens seen from Mt. Rintoul have bracts and calyx glab. except for fringing cilia. Among those from Ben Nevis some but not all have the outer surface of bracts and calyx-lobes ± pubescent, and plants from several gardens all show this character. In most if not all corolla-tubes exceed calyx.

Martin (T.R.S.N.Z. 67, 1938, 415) records H. gibbsii from Mt. Z, Wairau Mts. The specimen in W has the pubescence of H. gibbsii but it differs in having lf-base narrowed to branchlet-width, and strikingly in having long slender branching infls with distinctly pedicellate fls. No specimens have been seen from Gordon's Knob, Nelson, mentioned by Martin in Veg. Marlborough, 1932, 10.

The sp. belongs close to H. amplexicaulis and H. allanii but is distinct from both in its long, very narrow calyx-lobes and in the peculiar distribution of indumentum.