Flora of New Zealand Series

Stock woody, very stout; stems ∞, arcuate, crowded, rigid, sparingly branched, up to ± 20 cm. tall; branchlets erect, with 2-4 pubescent lines, purplish. Lvs very close-set, overlapping, hiding stems, opp. except in floral region, erect or ascending, sessile or very nearly so. Lamina narrow- to ovate-oblong, 15-20 × 5 mm., subacute, cuneately narrowed to base, thick, coriac., ± rugulose below, glab.; margins distantly denticulate. Fls concentrated at tips of branches, ± 8 mm. diam.; calyx-lobes lanceolate to narrow-ovate 4-5 mm. long; petals ± 8 mm. long, pale rose. Capsules glab., shining, purplish, 30-40 mm. long; peduncles up to 4 mm. long, glab. Seeds densely papillose.

DIST.: N., S. Montane to subalpine streambed, rocky places, rubble and fell-field from Tararua Range southward to at least lat. 44°.

FL.- FT. 11-3.

Haussknecht cites: "Nova Zelandia alt. 2-3000 ft. s. m. leg. Haast (Hb. Mus. brit.) ad Taramakau et Waiwaia [Wairau, Waiau?] leg. Travers (Hb. Kew sub E. melanocaulon); ad Wairarapa pr. Wellington leg. Ralph No. 131 (Hb. Mus. brit.)." At K are also specimens from Hurunui (Travers), Hopkins R. (Haast), No. 131 (Ralph) with "Wairarapa" pencilled on label, and other sheets not clearly conspecific.

Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 616) remarks: "I have reunited Professor Haussknecht's E. erubescens with [E. glabellum] finding it quite impossible to lay down a strict line of demarcation between the two plants." There is good field evidence that the linking forms are at least in part due to hybridism.