Flora of New Zealand Series

Veronica evenosa Petrie in T.N.Z.I. 48, 1916, 189.

Type locality: Mount Holdsworth, "upper edge of forest belt". Lectotype: W, 5334, D. Petrie, 25/1/1908.

Shrub to 2 m. tall with stout widely spreading main branches, freely subdivided below the lfy tips. Branchlets rather stout, bifariously to fully pubescent, length of internodes 2-3 × diam. Lvs subpatent, 15-20 × 6-8 mm., obovate-oblong, firm-textured, duller and with ∞ stomata on undersurface; lf-bud without sinus; lamina broad towards obtuse thickened tip, entire, glab. except for minute pubescence on margin. Infls lateral, simple, to 2.5-3 cm. long; peduncle short, hidden, pubescent. Fls crowded. Bracts c. = short pedicels, obtuse, ciliolate. Calyx-lobes c. 1·5 mm. long, broad, obtuse, ciliolate. Corolla white, tube c. 2 mm. long, lobes slightly longer, rounded. Capsule erect, c. 4 × 2.5 mm., obtuse, glab.

DIST.: N. Tararua Range.

FL. 1-2.

In describing V. evenosa Petrie contrasted it with V. laevis ( = H. venustula), a sp. probably wrongly recorded from the Tararua Range. His specimens show that he had before him two different elements, neither of them H. venustula, and his description is wide enough to cover both. The lectotype here selected belongs to the sp. long known as H. evenosa which is rather constant and easily recognized wherever it occurs in the Tararua mountains. Two other specimens with the same label could be parts of one plant; they have been matched by only a few later gatherings and as it seems likely that they are either of hybrid origin or else belong to an earlier described sp. the description has been emended to exclude them. These aberrent specimens show the following characters: internodes longer; lvs c. 25 × 8 mm., elliptic, subacute, the undersurface without visible stomata; infls in fl. c. 4·5 cm. long, mostly simple but occ. tripartite, peduncle visible; corolla-tube to 2 × calyx. Some features, especially the lf-texture, are reminiscent of H. stricta and the possibility of hybridism should be investigated. On the other hand there are similarities to V. truncatula of the Ruahine Range, the chief differences being in lf-texture, branchlet-pubescence and tendency to branching infls.