Flora of New Zealand Series

Type: A, 7531.1, "Red Hills, Wairau, Nelson, alt. 4000 ft. Jany. 1882, T.F.C."

Rosette-lvs few, 2-5 cm. × 5-9 mm., lamina narrow-spathulate very gradually tapering into winged petiole of about same length, tip apiculate; hairs fine and silky, scarcely overlapping, appressed to spreading, on undersurface regularly retrorse, longer and stronger on margins of sheathing If-base. Lateral branches erect, up to 18 cm. long, internodes mostly > lvs. Stem-lvs few, clearly distinct from rosette-lvs, c. 8 × 3 mm., narrow-oblong, sessile, acute; hairs fine and silky on upper surface, coarser and sparser on undersurface, long and fringing on margin. Cymes simple, ebracteate, c. 12-fld, c. 5 cm. long; internodes> calyx in fr.; pedicels up to 4 mm. long. Calyx 3-4 mm. long, lobes > 1/2 length, narrow, subacute; hairs on lobes long, flexuous, towards base short and appressed with longer hooked ones. Corolla "white with a yellow eye or altogether yellow", c. 8 mm. diam., tube funnelform and c. 5 mm. long with scales well above level of calyx-tips, lobes c. 3 × 2.5 mm., ± oblong; filaments fixed about level of scales, > anthers and carrying them well above scales to level of lobes, anthers > 1 mm. long; style 2 × calyx in fr., stigma capitate. Nutlets "ovoid, pale-brown".

DIST.: S. Known certainly only from type locality.

No recent collection matching M. laeta has been seen and its status and distribution remain uncertain.

In his original account Cheeseman gave the distribution of this sp. as "Apparently not uncommon on the Nelson mountains, altitude 2,000-4,000 feet. Red Hills, Wairau Valley; Mount Arthur Plateau; Mount Owen, etc. T.F.C." In the Manual 1906, 468 he lists "Hawke's Bay, H. Tryon! Nelson(Mountains flanking the Wairau Valley, T.F.C. Marlborough(Kaikoura Mountains, Buchanan! Canterbury(Ashburton Mountains, Potts! 1500-4000 ft." In the Manual 1925, 758 the Kaikoura record is omitted and "Lake Tennyson, R.M. Laing!" added.

Cheeseman's herbarium contains specimens from only one gathering including the type. Three plants of the same gathering are in W (2415). The Ashburton mountains record probably depends on one incomplete specimen in Herb. T. Kirk (W 2487), which though larger than the type might belong here. The Kaikoura record is apparently based on a gathering represented in Herb. Cheeseman (A 7532) and in Herb. T. Kirk (W 2489) and later referred by Cheeseman to M. laingii. The Hawke's Bay record appears to come from specimens in Herb. T. Kirk (W 2488) where the label "H. Tryon n. 55, n. 929 to Kew" accompanies two flowering specimens of M. eximia and one flowering branch that exactly matches Buchanan's Kaikoura specimens of M. laingii.