Flora of New Zealand Series

Veronica rigidula Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 1906, 514.

Type locality: Pelorus River, Marlborough, on rocks by the side of streams. Type: A, 7919, J. H. McMahon.

Erect much-branched shrub 15-30-(60) cm. tall. Branchlets slender, internodes little longer than wide, swollen and glab. below each lf, hairy-pubescent between swellings. Lvs erecto-patent, 12-18-(24) × 4-7 mm., elliptic-oblong, coriac., green above, dull or glaucous beneath; lf-bud with long narrow sinus; lamina glab., acute to subacute, entire, margins thickened. Infls lateral, us. with 2 or more branches of first order, not much > lvs; peduncle < lvs, hairy-pubescent. Fls almost sessile, ± opp. in axils of broad ciliolate bracts c. 2∙5mm. long. Calyx-lobes c. 1∙5 mm. long, broad-ovate, ciliolate. Corolla white, tube c. 2 × calyx, lobes almost as long, rounded. Capsule erect, ovoid-oblong, ± rounded, glab., < 2 × calyx.

DIST.: S. Known certainly only north of lat. 41° 30'. and especially from the system of mountains and valleys between Nelson and Blenheim. Rocky places.

FL. 12-2.