Flora of New Zealand Series

E. antarctica Hook. f. Fl. N.Z. 1, 1854, 199 non Benth. in DC. Prodr. 10, 1846, 555.

E. pygmaea Col. in T.N.Z.I. 31, 1899, 279 non C. Koch in Linnaea 22, 1849, 686.

E. wilsonii Petrie in T.N.Z.I. 55, 1924, 97.

Type: Wettstein cities collections of Haast in Southern Alps and Canterbury, and of Colenso, Sinclair, Travers and Hector without localities, but indicates no type; t. vi f. 430-435 is based on Haast specimens. Material of all these collectors is in K.

Small ± succulent annual herb 2-10 cm. tall, simple or branched from base, sts minute and flowering when < 1 cm. tall; branches ascending, bifariously white-pubescent, occ. with short glandular hairs towards tips. Lvs sessile, us. rather distant in lower parts of branches and crowded towards tips, sts forming small rosette, ± 4-9 × 2-6 mm., ovate to suborbicular or flabellate with 2-5 pairs of narrow acute teeth, cuneately narrowed to base, margins thickened and revolute, upper surface clad in short flattened white hairs sts mixed with short glandular hairs, occ. nearly glab., lower surface glab. or sparsely hairy. Fls clustered at tips of branches, subsessile or on pedicels up to 4 mm. long, sts pedicels longer, especially in fr. Calyx (4)-5-(6) mm. long, sts much enlarged in fr., pubescent as lvs, divided 1/3 to nearly 1/2 way; lobes acute, margins and midveins thickened and reddish. Corolla white, 6-10-(12) mm. long; tube narrow, slightly to much > calyx; lobes of lower lip 1-2 mm. wide, entire, obtuse to subacute. Anthers yellow to golden brown, margins glab. or nearly so, awns slender, ± equal. Capsule < or ± = calyx, 4-8 × 3-5 mm., obovate, setose at apex; seeds ∞, 1-1·5 mm. long.

DIST.: N., S. Montane to subalpine boggy to dry open places from Mt. Hikurangi southwards.

FL. 10-4. FT. 2-4.

Crossing appears to occur quite freely between E. cockayniana and E. zelandica where they occur together, e.g. at Arthur Pass, where plants combining characters of both spp. sts out-number pure individuals of E. zelandica. The putative hybrids are intermediate in habit with white to cream corollas of intermediate size and a mingling of the characteristic lf-pubescence of both spp. Even plants superficially closely resembling E. zelandica may have the stiff appressed scabridity of E. cockayniana on the lf-margins.

A very plastic and widely varying sp., the status of the different forms uncertain. In Hooker's original treatment under E. antarctica three vars are described: Var. α. "Top of Ruahine and other mountains, Colenso"; Var. β [major] "Milford Sound, Lyall"; Var. γ [grandiflora] "Dusky Bay, Lyall". Later (Handbk N.Z. Fl. 1864, 220) Hooker discarded the vars, referring the Dusky Bay specimens to E. revoluta, and ascribed the marked variation in the sp. to habitat and altitude differences. Lyall's specimens probably represent the characteristically luxuriant plants of western Otago and Fiordland which were described by Petrie as E. australis. These differ from E. zelandica principally in more elongated habit, larger lvs and fls and long pedicels, especially in fr., but us. also in having ∞ long glandular hairs on calyx, pedicels and sts lf-margins and few or no flattened white hairs on calyx and upper lf- surface. Although extreme forms appear very distinct the two spp. are not always satisfactorily separable; the size differences may be largely epharmonic, and elongated plants with pedicels > lvs sts have the pubescence of E. zelandica.

The following two spp. are more certainly based merely on habitat forms of E. zelandica :

E. pygmaea Col. in T.N.Z.I. 31, 1899, 279 was based on specimens collected on the east side of the Ruahine Range by Olsen. The type sheet in Herb. Colenso (W) contains 3 filiform unbranched plants c. 2 cm. tall with minute fls, probably similar to the Colenso Ruahine specimens described by Hooker as E. antarctica var α.

E. wilsonii Petrie in T.N.Z.I. 55, 1924, 97 was described from material from "Ruahine Range (western slopes), 3,500-5,500 ft.: R. A. Wilson! Arnold Wall! B. C. Aston. Collected early in January, 1922". The type sheet (W 4854) contains two very luxuriant specimens with lvs up to 12 × 10 mm., fls up to 12 mm. long, subsessile or on pedicels up to 15 mm., fruiting calyx up to 9 × 8 mm. These approach some of the Fiordland australis forms.