Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Australia or Tasmania.

Rosette us. single, lvs spathulate or lamina elliptic, 2-6 cm. × 4-12 mm., tip rounded and ± mucronate, petiole c. = lamina-length, narrow but ill-defined; hairs on upper surface spreading, uniform, fine, crowded, on undersurface sparser, shorter, retrorse. Lateral branches ascending or erect, few to many, up to 20-30 cm. long, inter-nodes us. = or > lvs. Upper stem-lvs sessile, spathulate to oblong, mostly 1-1·5 cm. long, tip subacute; hairs on upper surface silky, ± appressed, overlapping, on undersurface sparser, shorter, irregularly arranged. Cymes ebracteate, except sts towards base, mostly simple and terminal, either on primary laterals or on secondary laterals arising from axils of stem-lvs; internodes between frs > calyx; pedicels very short. Calyx c. 4 mm. long, lobes > 1/2 length, narrow, subacute; hairs long and straight towards tips, shorter and hooked towards base, with very short sparse hairs overall. Corolla white or yellow, tube = or > calyx, widest at top, lobes rounded, concave; filaments very short, fixed below scales, anther-tips barely reaching scales; style c. = tube in fl. Nutlets ± pointed, ± keeled.

DIST.: N., S.

Within the above general description are included a number of ill-differentiated forms. The following names have been published:

(a) Var. conspicua Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 1906, 462. "Flowers larger, ?-1/2 in. long, 1/4 in. diam., campanulate. Style considerably longer than calyx." No distribution is given but in Herb. Cheeseman are 3 specimens so named--A 7492, Mt. Torlesse, Jan. 1880, T.F.C. "fls yellow" which might be regarded as the type; A 7493, Kurow Mountains, D. Petrie; A 7491, Canterbury Plains, J. F. Armstrong.

(b) M. saxatilis Petric in T.N.Z.I. 50, 1918, 208 non Pallas Tabl. Taur. 1795, 47. Essential parts of the description are: Stems few from the root; radical lvs forming a compact rosette, 3 × 0·8 cm., gradually narrowed into rather broad petioles as long as blades; cauline lvs few. Racemes compactly branched, branches short; fls 9 mm. long, white. Calyx deeply 5-partite, lobes linear acute, sparsely clothed with ± spreading hairs; corolla funnel-shaped, the tube rather wide and twice as long as the calyx; stamens slightly shorter than corolla-tube. Type locality: Shingly Range, Awatere Basin, Marlborough, about 4000 ft. Type: W, 2612, L. Cockayne. White-flowered plants matching this description are not uncommon on rocks of the upper Awatere and adjacent valleys.

(c) Var. lytteltonensis Laing et Wall in T.N.Z.I 55, 1924, 442. "The plant has much more resemblance to M. forsteri than to M. australis in its exterior appearance; but in the details of its structure it comes much nearer to the latter. It differs from M. australis in being decumbent or prostrate, in the much less elongated rachis, in the long style, and in the somewhat lighter colour of the nutlets . . . . It apparently bears considerable resemblance to M. australis var. conspicua, which, however, is unknown to us." Original localities: cliffs above Lyttelton, Governor's Bay, and Sumner Road. Type: W, Robt. M. Laing Herb. No. 17637, Mt. Pleasant, Lyttelton, Nov. 1917. Similar plants were collected by Armstrong (W 2479, "Banks Peninsula 500 ft. alt."; Herb. Armstrong (CM) "Port Hills, J.B.A. 1864 Fls white") and by W. R. B. Oliver "Cliffs above Governor's Bay,9.11.47". The stem-lvs are relatively large, e.g., 35 × 10 mm. in type specimen, and many of them bear subsidiary laterals in their axils giving an effect of pinnate or bipinnate branching in pressed specimens; fls are "white or white with yellow eye, 1/4-? in. long, 1/4 in. diameter." Similarly robust, much-branched, white-fld plants have been collected: BD 28374, Cliff face, Ohiro Bay, Wellington, R. Mason 21.10.40; W 2508, Swale R. Inland Kaikouras, B. C. Aston Herb. Petrie; W 2557, Waiau Valley, Amuri, T. K. (no. 783 to Kew).

A widespread form, locally regarded as "true" M. australis, has yellow fls c. 4-5 mm. diam., corolla-tube up to 5 mm. long; cymes us. simple, erect, and elongating in fr.; stem-lvs ∞, narrow. Dist.: N. Kaimanawa Range. S. Canterbury and Otago. Tussock grassland.

A much-branched form with white fls barely 2 mm. diam. grows under beech forest at Lake Ohau (BD 87146) and retains its character under cultivation.

Any formal subdivision of the N.Z. representatives of this complex must be preceded by comparison with R. Brown's type of the sp. and detailed study in field and garden as well as herbarium.