Euphrasia cuneata G.Forst.
E. tricolor Col. in T.N.Z.I. 19, 1887, 264.
Type:? There are Forster specimens in poor condition in BM and K; Wettstein (Mon. Gatt. Euphr. 1896, 247) states that he has seen the original specimens in the Berlin Herbarium.
Perennial herb or subshrub up to c. 60 cm. tall; stems woody in lower parts, erect or ascending, branches us. lfy with small axillary branchlets, ± uniformly or sts bifariously pubescent with short crisped white hairs. Lvs us. rather distant, lamina 5-15-(25) × 3-10 mm., rhomboid-cuneate to ovate to suborbicular with 1-3 pairs of obtuse to subacute teeth and acute to obtuse triangular terminal lobe, cuneately narrowed into petiole 1-4 mm. long, glab., margins us. flat, sts somewhat thickened and revolute. Infl. much-branched with small simple bracts or reduced to a simple raceme with fls in axils of little-differentiated lvs; pedicels 1-3-(6) mm. long, < lvs. Calyx 4-8 mm. long, glab. or nearly so, unevenly divided with deepest clefts up to 1/2 length; lobes acute to obtuse, midribs thickened. Corolla white, 15-20 mm. long; tube much > calyx; lower lip distinctly > upper, lobes deeply emarginate, up to 8 mm. wide; lobes of upper lip entire, obtuse, 3-4 mm. wide. Anthers red-brown, conspicuously hairy, awns us. markedly unequal, lower 2 very long. Capsule distinctly > calyx when mature, 6-8-(10) × 2-3 mm., narrow-oblong, narrowed towards base and apex, densely setose at tip, at least at first; seeds ∞, c. 2 mm. long.
DIST.: N., S. Open rocky places, streamsides and among scrub, sea level to 1500 m., from East Cape to Marlborough Sounds; Lake Ellesmere, Canterbury, J. B. Armstrong, 1868.
FL. 1-3-(5). FT. 2-5.
There is great variation in size of all parts, mostly correlated with differences in altitude and habitat, but complete gradation between the extremes. Coastal and lowland plants have much-branched lfy stems and infls; lower lvs with laminae 10-25 mm. long, cuneately narrowed to distinct petiole, these narrowing and decreasing into linear-lanceolate, entire or obscurely toothed bracts of infl. Subalpine scrub forms us. have simpler, mostly unbranched, infls, the floral lvs little different from the vegetative lvs which are us. small with only 1-2 pairs of teeth and sts barely petiolate. Plants from Mt. Hikurangi, Mangapohatu and Mt. Egmont appear especially distinct because of their uniformly broad-ovate to suborbicular lvs, with floral lvs longer-petioled and ± spathulate. Round-lvd plants occur in other localities but not so consistently.
E. tricolor Col., described from plants collected on the banks of the river Mangatawhainui, near Norsewood, was said to differ from E. cuneata mainly in certain floral details. The type (W 5344) consists of 3 branched flowering pieces c. 15 cm. tall which do not differ appreciably from the normal lowland form of E. cuneata. At the same time Colenso described a var. microphylla, "very much smaller in all its parts, its numerous leaves being only 1-11/2 lines long", from "20 miles further south, in the open plains between Tahoraiti and Woodville". No specimens so labelled have been found in Herb. Colenso, W. Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1906, 553) noted under E. cuneata : "There seems to be two main varieties -- one tall and slender, with numerous leafy branches, narrow long-petioled leaves, and copious inflorescence; the other, which is principally montane and subalpine, and which corresponds to Colenso's E. tricolor, is not so much branched, the leaves are shorter and broader, on shorter petioles, and the flowers are spicate along the upper part of the branches. It might be distinguished as var. tricolor." Following this interpretation the combination E. cuneata var. tricolor (Col.) Cheesem., put more formally in Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 839, has since been widely used for the reduced plants of higher altitudes, though Colenso's type is not in fact an extreme form.
E. diversifolia Petrie in T.N.Z.I. 49, 1917, 54, based on a single collection from Mount Hector, Tararua Range, B. C. Aston (W 4853), was described as allied to but distinct from E. tricolor Col. The type material consists of a few slender stems bearing the long narrow capsules characteristic of E. cuneata; the calyx-lobing is more unequal than usual, pedicels are longer and the distant obovate lvs hardly petiolate. Specimens in W collected on the Kaimanawa Range by Aston match the type collection exactly. The status remains uncertain.
