Flora of New Zealand Series

Veronica parviflora var. strictissima Kirk in T.N.Z.I. 28, 1896, 527.

V. leiophylla var. strictissima (Kirk) Ckn. in Cawthron Lecture 3, 1920, 11.

Type locality: Akaroa. Type: W, 5341, T. Kirk, 1876; A 7879 is an isotype.

Laxly branched shrub to 2 m. tall. Branchlets ± stiff, glab. or most minutely bifariously pubescent, often reddish, length of internodes us. several × diam. Lvs erect to spreading, 2-4·5 cm. × 6-8 mm., narrow-oblong, subcoriac., rather light green, not shining, drying light brown; lf-bud without sinus; lamina narrowing ± abruptly to tip, entire, glab., but margin minutely pubescent. Infls lateral, simple, c. 2 × lf-length. Bracts very small, ciliolate, < pedicels. Calyx-lobes c. 1·5 mm. long, obtuse with membr. ciliolate border. Corolla white, tube wide, = or very little > calyx, lobes > tube, rounded. Capsule erect, rather acute, us. glab., warm brown when mature, to 3 × calyx-lobes.

DIST.: S. Banks Peninsula. On fringes of or occ. within forest.

FL. 12-1.

Banks Peninsula specimens show many resemblances to H. traversii but the flowers differ consistently in the short wide corolla-tube and comparatively large rounded lobes. Cheeseman placed these plants under his V. leiophylla although his description of that sp. states "Corolla-tube about twice as long as the calyx; limb equalling or shorter than the tube". Lvs vary considerably in size and shape, and Kirk's type specimens have unusually long lvs and infls to 10 cm. long. Some specimens show evidence of crossing with H. salicifolia; others differ from the common form only in having on ovary and style some of the kind of pubescence characteristic of H. rakaiensis.