Flora of New Zealand Series

Lobelia physaloides A. Cunn. in Ann. nat. Hist. 2, 1839, 50.

Colensoa physaloides (A. Cunn.) Hook. f. Fl. N.Z. 1, 1853, 157.

Type locality: "In damp woods at Wangaroa, Matauri etc., Bay of Islands". Type: K, R. Cunningham, 1834.

Branching, erect to sprawling herb up to c. 1 m. tall, softly woody towards base; branches and branchlets ascending to spreading. Lvs alt., on petioles up to ± 10 cm. long. Lamina broad-ovate to ovate-oblong to elliptic-ovate, acute to subacuminate, (5)-7-15-(20) × (3)-4-6-10) cm.; membr., glab., or with a few scattered hairs, especially on main veins; margins sharply, finely to rather coarsely irregularly 2-serrate or serrate-dentate. Racemes terminal, (5)-10-15-(20)-fld, on ± pubescent peduncles, often subcorymbose. Fls on slender pubescent pedicels ± 2 cm. long; bracts near base, linear. Calyx-lobes ± 8 mm. long, narrow-triangular to filiform, ciliolate. Corolla ± pubescent, 3-5 cm. long, violet to pale or rather dark blue, or occ. whitish. Lower lip 3-toothed, upper deeply 2-cleft. Stamens connate; filaments free to c. ⅔ way to the awned anthers. Stigma exserted; lobes oblong, spreading, c. 2 mm. long. Berry subglobose, 10-15 mm. diam., blue to whitish.

DIST.: Three Kings, N. Streamsides and forest margins, coastal and lowland, from near North Cape to nearly lat. 35° 30', Poor Knights Is. FL-

FT. 10-4.

Hooker (loc. cit.) raised this sp. to generic rank as Colensoa, but the fl. and fr. characters are those of Pratia. Hooker (Handbk N.Z. Fl. 1864, 170) distinguished his new genus from Lobelia"chiefly on account of the baccate fruit", but Hemsley (loc. cit.) recognised that the separation of Colensoa from Pratia was based on very slender grounds.