Flora of New Zealand Series

Matted, creeping herb forming patches up to 2 m across. Stems with well-marked lines of strigillose hairs running down from margins of petioles, very rarely glabrous. Lamina of lf narrowly ovate to broadly ovate or broadly elliptic, 0.15-1.3 × 0.15-1.2 cm. Floral tube 0.6-1.6 mm deep, glabrate or hairy. Petals white, (2.3)-3.2-7 × 1.8-5 mm. Capsule glabrate or sparsely hairy along lines of dehiscence, 1.5-6.1 cm long; fruiting pedicel (1)-3.5-8-(12) cm long.

N.; S.: throughout; St.; A., C., M.

Endemic.

Open stream beds and flushes, disturbed river gravel and other open, moist places, sea level to 1750 m.

FL Oct-Mar.

The 2 subspp. are distributed as follows: subsp. brunnescens : N.: from the mountains of E. Cape to Lake Taupo, S. to vicinity of Wellington and the Aorangi Range, but absent from the E. coast, also Mt Egmont, very rare northward; S.: throughout, but not common in S. Canterbury and C. Otago; St.; C., A., M. Moist rocky places, especially common on shingly riverbeds in areas of high rainfall and about seepages, sea level to 1450 m. (Endemic). This subsp. was treated by Allan (1961) as E. pedunculare Cunn. and E. pedunculare var. brunnescens Cockayne. subsp. minutiflorum (Cockayne) Raven et Engelhorn : N.: uncommon in mountains from the Raukumara Range to the C. Volcanic Plateau, S. of the Kaimanawa Mountains and the Ruahine Range, Mt Egmont; S.: E. of the Main Divide from N.W. Nelson to the Eglinton Valley, Eyre Mountains, and Old Man Range. Open stream beds and flushes, mostly above bushline or in tussock, 300-1750 m. (Endemic). This subsp. was treated by Allan (1961) as E. pedunculare Cunn.   var. minutiflorum Cockayne

E. brunnescens is distinguished from closely related spp. with a mat-forming habit and creeping stems (E. nerteroides, E. nummulariifolium, and E. pernitens) by the combination of stems with prominent lines of hairs and usually entire lvs.