Flora of New Zealand Series

Brown's description is: "A slender annual, 11/2 to 6 inches high, sometimes with a single stem, but usually with 3 to many stems to a root, erect, slender, roughly hairy with spreading (not deflexed) hairs on the basal part for 1/4 to 1/2 of the total height. Leaves alternate or opposite, usually extending 1/3 to 1/2 way up the stems, 1-9 lines long, 1/2-2 lines broad, the lower mostly obovate or spathulate oblanceolate, passing into lanceolate or linear on the upper part of the stems, all more or less pubescent with spreading hairs on both sides or the uppermost glabrous, usually wavy, with the margins very distinctly thickened or hardened and scabrid (not smooth), sometimes toothed. Pedicels 1 to 21/4 in. long, glabrous. Calyx 3 to 4 (rarely 5)-lobed, glabrous. Tube ellipsoid in fruit and 11/2 to 2 lines long; lobes erect, 1/2-3/4 line long, linear or deltoid-linear, subacute. Corolla very small, 3 to 4 (rarely 5)-lobed . . . with a cylindric tube 3/4 to 1 line long and lanceolate acute lobes 3/4 to 1 line long. Wahlenbergia gracilis var. capillaris Hook. f. Fl. N.Z. vol. 1, (1853), and Handbk. N.Z. Fl. p. 170 (1864). A native of New Zealand. This is similar in appearance to W. quadrifida, but differs by its stems being more hairy, with shorter spreading hairs, by the scabrid margins of the leaves and the shorter and more ellipsoid ovary and capsule."

A wide range of forms is included under the name colensoi in N.Z. herbaria and it is impossible to provide a satisfactory grouping until much further work has been done. The specimens at K on which N. E. Brown appears to have based his description have all the appearance of being bolted seedlings growing in sand

Hooker (Fl. N.Z. 1, 1854, 159) has: " Var. δ. capillaris; minor, caule capillari simplici paniculatim ramoso v. e basi ramosissimo glabro v. piloso, foliis linearibus lineari-oblongisve, pedunculis elongatis gracillimis, floribus parvis saepe trifidis, corolla ovario subgloboso breviore. Br. Prodr. p. 561. . . . The variety capillaris looks very distinct at first sight, from its extremely slender habit, very small flowers, and globose capsule, but I find it passing into the larger state of the plant, as Mr. Brown has indicated, by referring Tasmanian specimens of it to his W. gracilis."

R. Brown (Prodr. 1810, 561) has under Campanula gracilis " δ capillaris. Caulis capillaris, paniculatus; folia linearia, remota: flores 5-fidi; calycis laciniae capsula subglobosa dimidio breviores. (T.) Obs. Species polymorpha, cuius plures varietates e Nova Zeelandia et Nova Caledonia, a supra descriptio diversas, in Herb. Banks. vidi."