Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: "Mount Pisa Range (6,000 feet), on steep faces of shingle above the snow-drifts". Type: W, 2696A, Herb. D. Petrie.

Plant forming rather loose cushion to 3 cm. tall, roots adventitious from amongst old If-bases. Stems ± erect, several times branched, lfy throughout. Lvs up to 12 × 5 mm., lamina elliptic, subacute, petiole of about same length, broad; hairs closely appressed, rather stiff, ± overlapping on upper surface, on undersurface sparser, none retrorse, on petiole forming a long fringe. Lateral branches ± immersed in cushion, internodes < lvs. Stem-lvs linear-oblong, c. 7 × 2 mm., sessile; hairs 8 and closely appressed on both surfaces. Cymes simple, with 2-4 fls each associated with a bract, internodes and pedicels short. Calyx c. 5 mm. long in fl., lobes < 1/2 length, narrow, acute; hairs uniform and closely appressed. Corolla white, 7-8 mm. diam., tube cylindric, c. 6 mm. long, lobes c. 3 × 3 mm., rounded, flat; filaments short, anthers c. 1·5 mm. long, tips projecting above rather large scales; style c. 2 × calyx, stigma capitate. Nutlets not seen.

DIST.: S. Known only from the original collection.

There has been much confusion about the application of the name M. cheesemanii. The above description is drawn up from specimens on the sheet (W 2696A) marked "Type" in Petrie's hand; these agree with Petrie's account which describes the lvs as acute and "densely hispid with appressed stiff hairs". On a sheet (W 2696B) marked "co-type" are more specimens of the same kind together with an almost equal number of plants of similar habit but differing in broader lvs, longer softer hairs and solitary fls; plants of this second kind, labelled by Petrie "M. cheesemanii var. " (W 4748) are discussed above under M. pulvinaris.

Cheeseman's description of M. cheesemanii (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1906, 461) differs from Petrie's notably in "more or less clothed in all its parts with long soft white hairs" and "lower leaves . . . usually rounded at the tip". This description, which could refer to the lax form of M. pulvinaris, is repeated verbatim in Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 750, but here, before Otago localities (Mount Pisa and the Hector Mountains, Petrie !), is inserted "Nelson-Mount Percival, T.F.C.; summit of Mount Captain, C. E. Christensen!" Specimens supporting these last two records (A 7446 and A 46591) are even more different from Petrie's type and resemble M. elderi. Except for its low cushion-form and more uniform length of If-hairs the type of M. cheesemanii very closely resembles M. colensoi,