Flora of New Zealand Series

Veronica bidwillii Hook. f. Handbk N.Z. Fl. 1864, 215 and later authors p. max. p. non Hook. Ic. Pl. 1852, t. 814.

Type locality: Hooker Valley, Mt. Cook, 750 m. altitude. Type: A, 8392, T. F. Cheeseman; syntype in W. Plate 157 of Cheeseman's Ill. N.Z. Fl. 2, 1914, based on part of the type collection, is an excellent representation of this sp.

Prostrate much-branched subshrub forming dense to loose matted patches; stems slender, ± woody, sts rooting at nodes, giving off small appressed lfy branches 2-5 cm. long, all uniformly pubescent with crisped white hairs. Lvs close-set to distant, often reddish and ± fleshy when fresh; lamina 1·5-4-(5) × 1-3-(5) mm., ovate to suborbicular, entire or once-lobulate at base, rarely with 2 pairs of crenations, broadly rounded at tip, glab., abruptly narrowed into stout ± ciliate grooved petiole 1-1·5 mm. long with line of pubescence above. Racemes 6-10-(15)-fld, lowest fls us. in remote whorl of (2)-3; peduncles stout, up to 15 cm. long, glab. or rarely sparsely pubescent; bracts 1-2 mm. long, narrow-ovate, glab. or sparsely ciliolate; pedicels 2-10 mm. long, glab. or sparsely pubescent. Calyx-lobes 2-3 mm. long, ovate, acute to subacute, finely ciliolate. Corolla white to pink, c. 1 cm. diam.; tube barely 1 mm. long, much < calyx; lobes 4, unequal, spreading, obtuse or anterior one emarginate. Capsule c. 4-5 × 3-4 mm., much > calyx, broad-oblong, emarginate, us. turgid, glab.

DIST.: S. Montane to subalpine shingly river-beds, screes and fellfield throughout, along and east of divide.

FL. 11-2.

A well-marked sp. sts confused with small forms of P. lyallii but us. easily distinguished by more stiffly prostrate habit, smaller entire or once-lobed lvs, longer peduncles, glab. pedicels, and by lowest fls being in ± remote whorl of 3. Specimens intermediate in these characters are occ. collected from localities where both spp. occur and these, including the type of V. bidwillii Hook., are further discussed under HYBRIDISM. While most forms bear only the characteristic entire or once-lobed lvs, specimens from some localities (e.g. N.W. Nelson) which show no other discrepancies have larger lvs regularly with 2 notches on each side.