Flora of New Zealand Series

Hispid, short-lived perennial to c. 50 cm high; hairs with bulbous base. Lower stem lvs to c. 12 × 1 cm, oblong-lanceolate, oblong-linear or linear, often canescent; base attenuate to short petiole or lamina nearly sessile; apex acute; upper lvs smaller, sessile. Panicle diffuse. Bracts < to slightly > calyx. Calyx 3-4.5 mm long at anthesis, deeply lobed, densely hairy; lobes obtuse. Corolla tube 2-4 mm long; limb 10-13 mm diam., deep blue; lobes broad-ovate or suborbicular, 2.5-4 mm long. Scales densely papillate, white. Style > calyx. Nutlets 2-3 mm long, broadly ovoid, suberect, rugose.

S.: a casual collected from a waste area at Heathcote, Christchurch, and from the Rakaia R. bed, Canterbury.

S. Europe, Asia Minor 1981

FL Dec-Feb.

In N.Z. material nutlets are suberect, rather than erect as described in European Floras.

A. officinalis L. is occasionally cultivated and there are incomplete specimens collected from a ballast heap at Thorndon, Wellington, which probably represent it. The cauline lvs are larger than those of A. barrelieri and the nutlets are horizontal.

A. arvensis (L.) M. Bieb. (Lycopsis arvensis L.) is probably represented by CHR 79360, north approach to Cromwell Bridge, Central Otago, McNeur, 14.10.1949. The specimen is incomplete and lacks the blue fls which it was stated to have. However, the lvs with their large, tubular, bulbous-based hairs match European material.