Nertera balfouriana Cockayne
Original localities: Rakaia, Ashburton, Rangitata and Waimakariri Valleys; near Mount Cook. Type: I have not seen material preserved by Cockayne.
Forming ± dense patches up to c. 25 cm. diam., glab. Stems ± fleshy, slender, sparingly to much branched; branches and branchlets very slender. Lvs on slender shallowly canaliculate petioles (1)-2-(4) mm. long. Stipules c. 1 mm. long, subtriangular, membr., pale; tip acute or subacute. Lamina broad-ovate to broad-oblong to obovate or subrotund (diverse shapes on same plant); (1·5)-2-4-(5) × (1)-2-3-(4) mm., obtuse; rounded to truncate or subcordate at base. Fls axillary and terminal, sessile, markedly protogynous. Calyx truncate, obsolescent. Corolla 4-lobed; tube 2·25-3 mm. long, glab., funnelform; lobes bluntly triangular, reflexed, papillose on margins. Styles projecting beyond anthers, recurved, united in basal third. Stamens c. 5 mm. long, erect. Drupe pyriform, (6·5)-7-9 mm. long, yellow to light orange.
DIST.: N., S. Damp and boggy ground, lowland to subalpine, especially among sphagnum from Kaimanawa Range southwards, local.