Flora of New Zealand Series

Veronica insularis Cheesem. in T.N.Z.I. 29, 1897, 392.

Type locality: Three Kings Islands. Type: A, 7888, T.F.C., Nov. 1889.

Small erect or decumbent shrub 0·5-1 m. tall. Branchlets stout, hairy-pubescent, length of internodes c. = diam. Lvs suberect or spreading, c. 2-3 × 1 cm., elliptic-oblong, ± coriac., "often glaucous"; lf-bud us. with small narrow sinus; lamina us. glab., subacute or shortly bluntly mucronate, entire, margins cartilaginous to base. Infls lateral, each us. tripartitely branched, to 4 cm. long, together forming a corymbose head projecting above uppermost lvs; peduncle to 1·5 cm. long, pubescent. Bracts c. 3 mm. long, triangular, ciliolate, pedicels longer at fruiting. Calyx-lobes c. 2 mm. long, broadly ovate, subacute, ciliolate. Corolla pale blue, tube c. 3 mm. long, rather wide, lobes c. 3 × 2-2.5 mm., obtuse. Capsule erect, 4-5 × 3 mm., glab., us. > 2 × calyx.

DIST.: Three Kings Is. Rocky places on Great Id and South-West Id.

FL. 11-12.

Baylis (Rec. Auck. Inst. Mus. 3, 1948, 245) records this among the commonest spp. of "fissures and ledges on the sea-cliffs which are inaccessible to goats" on Great Id.

The specimens seen show some diversity in hairiness of lvs and branchlets, the indumentum when best developed resembling that of some Chatham Is spp.; some lf-buds lack the sinus that almost invariably accompanies branching lateral infls in mainland spp.