Flora of New Zealand Series

M. hectori Hook. f. Handbk N.Z. Fl. 1864, 193.

Type locality: "alps of Otago, alt. 6000 ft." Type: K, Hector and Buchanan.

Many-branched tufted perennial forming compact rounded cushion up to 10 cm. diam., adventitious roots from branches. Stems 1-3 cm. long, crowded, ± erect, closely covered with imbricating lvs, the whole twig 5-10 mm. diam. Lvs c. 5-7 × 3-5 mm., the very broad-oblong lamina slightly narrowed to membr. sheathing base, tip very broad-obtuse; hairs long, silky, crowded, ± appressed. Flowering lateral branches very short, often hidden, with a few narrow oblong lvs surrounding the solitary terminal almost sessile fl. Calyx c. 3 mm. long, lobes c. 1/2 length, subacute, finely hairy within, long soft hairs forming a complete cover outside. Corolla white, c.6 mm. diam., tube 4-5 mm. long, lobes c. 2 × 2 mm., broadly rounded, flat, overlapping at sinus; filaments short, anthers up to 1·5 mm. long, tips protruding just above rather large scales; style 2-3 × calyx, stigma capitate. Nutlets dark, c. 1·5 × 0·8 mm., the few seen narrow-oblong.

DIST.: S. Mountains of Central Otago.

M. hectori is described as having "habit and appearance of M. pulvinaris, but less soft" with lvs "broadly obovate-spathulate, contracted into a broad, coriaceous, glabrous petiole." in contrast to the "broadly ovate or oblong-quadrate" lvs of M. pulvinaris. The few specimens labelled M. hectori, including the type (at K), show only insignificant differences from the type of M. pulvinaris.

Matching M. pulvinaris in the solitary terminal fls, long lax hairs and twiggy cushion form are a series of quite different-looking specimens from the Remarkables (Wall, CM), Mt. Pisa and the Rock and Pillar Range; lvs are generally larger (up to 10 × 5 mm.), definitely narrowed towards the tip, less hairy, and not closely imbricate so that individual twigs are less strictly cylindric and less clearly distinct than in M. pulvinaris. Petrie labelled some such specimens "M. cheesemanii var. " (W 4748), but their solitary fls and long hairs place them nearer to M. pulvinaris although the rather open cushions resemble those of the type of M. cheesemanii