Flora of New Zealand Series

M. astonii Cheesem. in T.N.Z.I. 42, 1910, 217.

M. diversifolia Petrie in T.N.Z.I. 50, 1918, 208.

Type locality: Ruahine Range, east side. Type: K, Mr. E. W. Andrews, 1895.

Rosettes often several, vegetative laterals occ. long and layering by adventitious roots. Rosette-lvs few, up to 7 × 2 cm., lamina broad-oval suddenly narrowed into slender petiole of about same length, tip apiculate; hairs fine and silky, scarcely overlapping, ± spreading, on undersurface slightly coarser and sparser, on margins of sheathing lf-base longer and stronger. Lateral branches ascending or erect, 10-30 cm. long, occ. branched; internodes mostly c. = lvs. Stem-lvs 8-25 × 4-12 mm., becoming more narrow and sessile upwards, apiculate; hairs similar to those of rosette-lvs and fringing margin rather evenly. Cymes ebracteate, 8-fld, us. simple; internodes between frs us. > calyx; pedicels up to 5 mm. long. Calyx 4-6 mm. long, lobes c. 1/2 length, linear-oblong with median rib, subacute; hairs long and short, mostly on margins and ribs, more spreading and slightly hooked towards base. Corolla white, c. 7 mm. diam., tube funnelform with scales at about level of calyx-tips, lobes c. 2.5 × 2 mm., ± oblong; filaments fixed just below scales, > anthers and carrying them well above the scales to the level of the lobes, anthers < 1 mm. long; style > calyx in fr.; stigma clavate, sts minutely 2-lobed. Nutlets c. 1·5 × 1 mm.

DIST.: N. Ruahine and Tararua Ranges. S. Mt. Arthur Plateau, T.F. Cheeseman, E. M. Heine; Cobb Valley, F.G. Gibbs, R. Mason; Gouland Downs, H. Talbot. Forest and streamsides.

Colenso's description was drawn up from "a single specimen evidently taken from a root-stock" and each lf and branch mentioned can be located on the specimen at K. The type of M. astonii Cheesem. is A 7526, Mt. Holdsworth, Tararua Range, W. Townson, Jan. 1908. The type of M. diversifolia Petrie'> M. diversifolia Petrie (W 2394, Ruahine Mountains, H. Hill) matches very well some of those included in Herb. Colenso under M. polyantha Col., also collected on Ruahine Range by H. Hill. Petrie evidently erred in stating "anthers . . . about three times as long as the very slender filaments" as the filaments are definitely longer than the anthers in W 2394.

This sp. has been compared with M. saxosa by Cheeseman and with M. petiolata by Petrie but in habit and vegetative characters it more closely resembles M. forsteri. Without the corolla and stamens specimens can be determined only tentatively by the slightly finer and more spreading hairs and the long style with clavate stigma.

Nelson specimens quoted are less robust than most from North Id but agree otherwise; one from limestone debris on Gouland Downs (BD 87640) has a total height at flowering of only 5 cm. A similarly dwarfed plant from a dry limestone cliff, N.W. Ruahine Range (BD 80166) differs in having retrorse hairs on the undersurface of the rosette-lvs.

M. astonii has been recorded from the Opotiki district (Bull. Wellington bot. Soc. No. 26, 1953, 31); these plants have the short stiff hairs and deeply lobed calyx of M. petiolata and are here treated as belonging to a var. of that sp.