Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: "Mts near Arrowtown, Lake Co. Otago, 3000-5000 ft." Type: W, 2648, D. Petrie.

Perennial herb with adventitious roots from bases of old rosette-lvs. Rosette-lvs us. c. 2-3 cm. × 6-10 mm., lamina obovate, longer than the winged petiole, obtuse; hairs long, ± spreading, almost or quite absent on undersurface which is always glab. in old lvs. Lateral branches decumbent, up to 6 cm. long, internodes < lvs. Stem-lvs c. 10 × 5 mm., about oblong, ± acute, often distichous; bracts smaller, narrower, acute; hairs rather long on both surfaces and fringing margin. Cymes us. simple, often < 12-fld, bracteate in lower part at least, internodes short; pedicels very short. Calyx 4-5 mm. long in fl., up to 8 mm, in fr., lobes c. 1/2 length, broad, subacute, the whole calyx evenly covered with mixed long and short spreading soft hairs. Corolla white, blue or pinkish, c. 6 mm. diam., tube c. 5 mm. long, cylindric, lobes c. 2 × 2.5 mm., broadly and bluntly rounded, overlapping at sinus, flat; filaments short, anthers > 1 mm. long, tips protruding above rather large scales; style c. 2 × calyx, stigma capitate. Nutlets dark, the few seen 1·4-2 × 0.9-1·2 mm.

DIST.: N. Tararua Range: South King, Jumbo, Mt. Mitre. S. Mts near Hanmer, Mt. Emerson, Mt. Winterslow, Mt. Potts, Mt. Cardrona, Mts near Arrowtown, Upper Routeburn, Bold Peak, Wilmot Pass, Princess Range.

FL. (11)-12-1-(3). FT. 1-3.

Specimens here brought together have been widely collected and were found in herbaria under several spp.: M. cheesemanii, the type of which lacks a definite rosette and has smooth appressed hairs; M. pygmaea, all forms of which have smaller fls, less flat corolla-lobes and included anthers; M. townsonii in which filaments are long and carry anthers wholly above scales. Fl.-structure puts M. elderi in the same group as M. uniflora, pulvinaris, cheesemanii and colensoi; amongst these the rosette habit places it near M. colensoi, from which (and from M. cheesemanii) it differs in soft spreading hairs and broad lvs.

The species is named after Mr. N. L. Elder who drew attention to its presence in the Tararua Range.