Forstera "flagriformes"
Small shrubs with terete or tetragonous whipcord-like branches covered with scalelike lvs. Internodes bifariously white-hairy, photosynthetic and very similar in appearance to lvs, us. short and almost entirely hidden; nodal joint at base of lf not always externally recognizable. Lvs sessile, connate, ± appressed but not adnate, us. overlapping, concavo-convex, often keeled, sts ribbed, mostly thickly fleshy when fresh, margined with fine white cilia, conspicuously dotted with stomata on abaxial surface. Fls sessile in simple, short, crowded terminal spikes continuous with branchlets; bracts opp., similar to lvs but us. larger and thinner; rhachis and bases of bracts and calyx clad in abundant white woolly hairs (except in H. c upressoides). Calyx-lobes ciliolate; anterior pair flat or slightly convex, fused in lowest third or for whole length, overlapping posterior lobes at deep lateral clefts; posterior lobes often smaller, keeled, separated by wide deep cleft or sts by rudimentary fifth lobe, fused in H. cupressoides. Corolla us. white, lobes 4, unequal, spreading, = or > tube. Capsule glab., dorsally compressed with septum across broadest diam. (except in H. cupressoides), laterally grooved near apex, dehiscing septicidally with only slight loculicidal split. Fourteen spp., from upland and mountain habitats.
Key
The so-called "whipcord" hebes are well-defined by their peculiar habit, though they are quite closely related to the "Buxifoliatae". Some of the spp. are very difficult of discrimination and it has not been possible to construct a key that will always provide a clear separation. Hybrids between whipcord spp. have not certainly been detected but crossing not uncommonly occurs with other spp., particularly the "Buxifoliatae", and some hybrids are well-known in cultivation.
Measurements given of the diameter of ultimate branchlets are taken from below the extreme tip and include the lvs. In spp. with very close-set overlapping lvs internode-length is most easily found by halving the distance between the apices of alt. lf-pairs. In those spp. where the position of the node is not externally obvious it may be determined by breaking off the lf. Plants alter considerably on drying, lvs which were smoothly appressed shrinking and ± standing out from the branchlets and internodes sts longitudinally wrinkling. This is particularly noticeable in specimens from cultivated plants, which also us. have unnaturally long internodes and often revert to semi-juvenile foliage. Juvenile and reversion lvs have not been seen in all spp. but in all cases described are spreading, petiolate, membr., entire or pinnatifidly toothed or lobed, passing by gradual transition into adult form. Fls sts appear as early as November or December, but for most spp. the main flowering appears to be in January or February with late fls until April and May.
