Flora of New Zealand Series

Original localities: Mt. Arthur Plateau and Mt. Owen, T. F. Cheeseman. Type: the sp. was based on specimens sent to Wettstein in Vienna.

Slender succulent annual herb 5-10 cm. high with lax ascending bifariously pubescent branches up to 20 cm. or more long. Lvs sessile, distant, 4-10 × 3-8 mm., ovate to ovate-oblong with 2-4 pairs of obtuse to subacute crenations and obtuse tip, submembr., subglab. or finely white-pubescent, margins and veins below thickened and scabrid or setose with fine stiff hairs. Fls few and us. distant towards the upper part of the branches, pedicels slender, white-pubescent and sts also glandular-hairy, up to 30 mm. long and us. much > lvs, us. ± curved in fr. Calyx 3-4 mm. long, subevenly divided c. ⅓ way into obtuse lobes with margins and midribs thickened and white-pubescent, sts glandular hairs also present. Corolla white, 8-12 mm. long; tube much > calyx; lobes of lower lip 2.5-3 mm. wide, entire. Anthers golden yellow, margins hairy, awns unequal. Capsule = or > calyx, 3-4 × 3-3·5 mm., obovate to suborbicular, finely setose at apex; seeds 2 per locule or 1 by abortion, c. 2 mm. long.

DIST.: S. Montane to subalpine wet places and edges of swamps from N.W. Nelson to the Brunner Range and Mt. Mantell.

FL. 12-2.

Forms of E. australis with obtuse lf-teeth and calyx-lobes are superficially very similar to E. cheesemanii but differ in pubescence, anther-characters and number of ovules. Scraps of E. cheesemanii occur in collections of E. australis from Routeburn and Clinton Saddle in Herb. Petrie (W), but Petrie confused the two spp. and the specimens were probably mixed in error. There is no definite record of E. cheesemanii south of S.W. Nelson.