Flora of New Zealand Series

Veronica pinguifolia Hook. f. Handbk N.Z. Fl. 1864, 210. (Figured by Hooker f. Bot. Mag. t. 6587 as V. carnosula.)

Original localities: "Common on the mountains of Nelson and Canterbury. Wairau gorge, alt. 3-5000 ft., Travers; Southern Alps, common, ascending to 5000 ft., Haast". Type: K.

Small, erect to decumbent, robust shrub, 15 cm. to 1 m. tall. Branchlets variously, though never closely and finely, pubescent, internodes us. short. Lvs imbricating to spreading, c. 10-15 × 5-10 mm., broadly ovate, ± concave, us. rather thick and glaucous; lf-bud without sinus, the lamina only very gradually tapered to the base which is broad but < 1/2 lf-width; lamina broadly obtuse to occ. subacute, entire, glab.; midrib obscure. Infls lateral, simple, rarely > 2 × lvs, sts quite hiding vegetative tip; peduncle us. < lf, coarsely pubescent. Fls crowded, sessile. Bracts broad, ciliolate, = and overlapping the very similar calyx-lobes. Corolla-tube not > calyx, lobes long and narrow. Capsule erect, us. pubescent, rounded, scarcely > calyx.

DIST.: S. East of main divide, at least from Marlborough to south Canterbury.

FL. 10-4.

Cockayne (T.N.Z.I. 31, 1899, 382) says: "essentially a plant of the drier mountains, xerophilous in structure, and not occurring, so far as I know, on the western side of the dividing range, and possibly not within the region of the western rainfall". Cockayne and Allan (loc. cit.) say: "Cheeseman gives Otago as a locality for the species, but we do not think it is to be found there. . . . This is a linneon of probably many jordanons and their hybrids . . . A vast amount of field work and genetic experiment will be required to arrive at the status of the different members of the linneon." This work still remains to be done.

Most herbarium specimens labelled H. carnosula, probably on the basis of their glab. capsules, do not match the type of that sp. but fall rather into the H. pinguifolia complex. Many plants from Amuri district have capsules that are glab., but rounded and short, not "acute, twice as long as calyx" as described for carnosula. These plants differ from the type of carnosula and match pinguifolia also in lf-buds without sinus, sessile fls, large bracts and very short corolla-tubes.