Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Mount Owen, "abundant on the debris of limestone rocks, altitude 3,500-4,500 feet". Type: A, 7549, T. F. Cheeseman.

Rosette-lvs 5-11 × 0.7-1.1 cm., narrowly elliptic-spathulate, petiole slender and almost = lamina-length, tip subacute; hairs very finely silky, appressed, ± overlapping on upper surface, on undersurface similar but regularly retrorse. Lateral branches ascending to erect, 15-20 cm. long, lfless below cyme, lower internodes < lvs. Stem-lvs c. 25 × 7 mm., lanceolate with rounded base and narrowing to subacute tip, sessile; hairs similar to those on rosette-lvs but less closely appressed, on undersurface many retrorse especially on lower lvs. Cymes us. forked, ebracteate, many-fld, 1-2 cm. long or more, internodes very short, pedicels up to 3-(6) mm. long. Calyx 5-8 mm. long, lobes c. 1/2 length, ± oblong and obtuse, hairs crowded, silky, appressed, ± flexuous but not hooked, many retrorse at base. Corolla "bright pale yellow", c. 9-12 mm. diam., tube c. 6 mm. long, flaring slightly at mouth, scales prominent, lobes spreading, up to 4 mm. long, ± oblong; filaments long and conspicuous, standing well above corolla, anthers c. 1·5 mm. long, versatile; style > stamens, stigma capitate. Nutlets 2.5 mm. long when immature.

DIST.: S. Nelson mountains.

FL. 1.

Cheeseman says (loc. cit.) "also on Mount Arthur, altitude 4,000 feet, T. F. C." but in Ill. N.Z. Fl. 2, 1914, Plate 145 he records "So far as I am aware, the typical form of the species has been found nowhere but on Mount Owen; but in 1886 I gathered a plant on Mount Arthur which agrees in habit, foliage, and shape of corolla, but differs in the flowers being white with a yellow eye, and not pure yellow, as is the case with the type." A 7550 of this gathering fits well enough into M. concinna, as do also two flowering plants in CM collected by A. Wall "Mt. Arthur Plateau, Jan. 1930".