Flora of New Zealand Series

"A small, much-branched plant to about 10 cm. high. Rootstock short, woody. Stems slender, decumbent and rooting at the base, red, bifariously pubescent. Leaves crowded, 10-15 mm. long, 4-5 mm. broad. Petioles shortly connate at the base, red; blade ovate or obovate oblong, obtuse, obscurely toothed or sinuate at the margins, purplish, or sometimes purplish green, glabrous; paler beneath and base of the midrib prominent. Flowers small, almost sessile in the axils of the uppermost leaves, 1·5 cm. long, 5 mm. diam., white; calyx segments lanceolate, bluntly tipped; limb slightly exceeding the calyx. Stigma clavate. Capsules minutely pubescent, 3 cm. long, red, fruited; [fruiting] peduncles short, 4 mm. long. Seeds obovate oblong, papillose.

"Habitat: Stony debris. Type specimen from the upper western basin of the Matukituki River, near Hector's Col, in the Herbarium Plant Research Bureau, Wellington.

"From its colouring this may have been confused with E. purpuratum, but that plant has a prostrate and rooting habit, and Buchanan's specimens have pedicels 3-4 cm long, elongating in fruit to 6 cm."

No specimens have been located in BD, and I have copied the original description.