Flora of New Zealand Series

Type: BD 77811, H. Talbot, 24/4/54. There are 8 small pieces on the sheet.

Perennial tufted plant. Rhizomes slender, 1-2 mm. diam., with papery bark, branching and interlacing underground, putting up lfy rosettes on the surface. Rosettes 1-3 cm. diam., crowded or distant, sts shortly branched from the base. Lvs uniform, narrow-linear, 1-3-(4) cm. × 1-2 mm., slightly narrower below, dark green or purplish. Peduncles solitary from each rosette, 5-10 cm. tall, nude or with a single small bract. Fls solitary, rather slender; corolla pale blue-violet with 3 fine dark blue veins in each lobe; tube narrow-campanulate, 2-3 mm. long, lobes spreading, 8-10 mm. long. Calyx glab., lobes linear-acuminate, 2 × 0.75 mm.; ovary slender, obconic. Capsule obconic, c. 6-7 mm. long.

DIST.: S. Only known locality: Castle Hill Basin, Canterbury; broken limestone debris, 3000.

Similar to W. albomarginata of South Id, but markedly different in the lvs. Named in honour of W. B. Brockie, curator of the Otari Native Plant Museum, Wellington, who discovered the plant and cultivated it. A good specimen is BD 76373 (garden plant, W. B. Brockie); this has lvs up to 3·5 cm. × < 2 mm., peduncle 9 cm. long, fl. 15 mm. long.