Flora of New Zealand Series

Primary root short-lived; adventitious roots present. Stem very short, usually simple, with dense, long, hairy tuft. Lvs radical, rosulate, often black-blotched; petiole flattened, often indistinct and lvs ± sessile. Lamina 1-4.5-(5) × 0.1-1.5 cm, linear-subulate to broad-lanceolate, narrow- to broad-elliptic, or narrow-ovate, subcoriaceous; main veins 1-(3); hairs few to numerous, best-developed on raised transverse ridges opposite teeth bases, 0 on undersurface; margins usually dentate or pinnately divided, occasionally entire; apex obtuse; base attenuate, less so in some coastal plants. Fl. 1; scape mostly hidden by long stem hairs, extremely short at flowering, to 2.5 cm long at fruiting, almost glabrous except for tuft of hairs immediately below bract. Bract and sepals < 1 mm long, ± elliptic, always much < basal portion of capsule, membranous and without keel, glabrous. Corolla tube to 2.5 mm long; lobes often only 3, 1.2-1.7 × 0.4-0.7 mm, narrow. Stamens 3-4 (in same plant). Capsule 1.5-3 mm long, ± broad-ellipsoid. Seeds 10-50, 0.5-1 mm long, irregular and ± elongated.

N.: Mt Egmont, Volcanic Plateau and mountains S. to Cook Strait ( subsp. triandra), coastal areas in Taranaki, around Cook Strait, including Cape Palliser ( subsp. masoniae (Cheeseman) Sykes); S.: mountains from Nelson and Marlborough to Fiordland, but sometimes at low altitudes ( subsp. triandra), coastal areas in N.W. Nelson, Buller and from Marlborough to Southland; St. ( subsp. masoniae)

Endemic.

Boggy areas in tussock grassland, sometimes riverbeds ( subsp. triandra), coastal sites ( subsp. masoniae).

FL Dec-Mar.

Allan (1961) listed P. masoniae Cheeseman in the synonymy of P. triandra commenting in the footnotes that plasticity of characters does not permit taxonomic recognition of Cheeseman's plant. However, despite the admittedly large overlap in many characters, especially those of reproductive parts, the coastal and inland mountain populations are separable [Sykes, W. R., New Zealand J. Bot. 26: 322 (1988)]. Plants from the type locality of  subsp. masoniae, Manaia, Taranaki, are particularly distinct from populations of  subsp. triandra in the North Id and the north of the South Id. In the south of the South Id,  subsp. triandra can grow on river beds down to the coast but apparently remains separate from populations of  subsp. masoniae on adjacent coasts.