Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Mauterangi, Kaitaia. Type: W, 2562, R. H. Matthews, Nov.-Dec. 1900.

Erect or sprawling herb, possibly annual, with adventitious roots from amongst rosette-lvs only. Rosette-lvs (1)-3-4 × (0.6)-1-1·5 cm., lamina orbicular, mucronate, petiole much longer, sharply defined, slender; hairs short, stiff, sparse, appressed, on undersurface similar but fewer. Lateral branches ascending to erect, up to 30 cm. long, sts themselves repeatedly branched; internodes mostly > lvs, hairs short and closely appressed. Stem-lvs with orbicular laminae, petioles becoming progressively shorter and broader; lvs associated with fls almost sessile, very broadly ovate, up to 10×6 mm.; hairs as on rosette-lvs. No clearly defined cyme but about 6 fls produced over a length of up to 10 cm., us. but not always above the highest branch, each fl. opp. or slightly below a If. Pedicels long, = fl. and 2-3 × calyx in fr. Calyx 2-3 mm. long, very deeply divided, lobes narrow and spreading in fr. exposing nutlets; hairs short, stiff, appressed, confined to margins and midribs of lobes, crowded on base. Corolla white, 5-8 mm. diam., very openly campanulate, tube 1·5 mm. long with small scales, lobes oblong, c. 2.5 × 1·5 mm.; filaments fixed below scales, as long as lobes; anthers c. 0·5 mm. long; style 2 × calyx in fr., stigma conspicuously capitate. Nutlets up to 2 × 1·5 mm., broadly ovate, brown.

DIST.: N. Vicinity of Kaitaia.

POLYMORPHY AND HYBRIDISM

Size of vegetative parts is greatly, of fls to some extent, influenced by stage and conditions of growth, and dimensions given probably rarely cover the whole possible range. Types of hairs are less likely to be altered by habitat conditions, and those on lvs and calyx seem to constitute good taxonomic characters, although doubts are raised by an occ. plant differing from the rest of a sp. only with respect to occurrence of retrorse hairs.

No satisfactory account can be given of the smaller forms of the mountains extending from Central Otago to Fiordland. Many have rosettes contracted into some sort of cushion habit with salverform fls that are us. white, conspicuous, large for the size of the plant (mostly 8-10 mm. diam.) and often abundant and sweet-scented. Herbarium specimens, though numerous, are tantalizingly inadequate; neverthless, on fl.-characters and hair-types at least eight different kinds can be recognized. Some are referable to M. pulvinaris, M. cheesemanii, M. glabrescens and M. tenericaulis; others show combinations or characters like those found in M. elderi, M. suavis or M. lyallii and possibly are dwarf forms of these spp.; there is probably at least one un-described sp. Some fls have anthers so placed that it is doubtful whether the plants belong to section Exarrhena or not. Quite often two or more of these cushion forms appear on one herbarium sheet, as if they had been collected together.

The only hybrids recorded are M. macrantha × M. traversii (Cockayne and Allan in Ann. Bot., Lond. 48, 1934, 39); herbarium specimens from the locality mentioned--foot of Mt. Sefton--show no characters suggesting M. traversii except the paler fl.-color. The same authors refer to M. australis and M. pygmaea as un-analysed linneons; polymorphy in these two groups (possibly also in M. forsteri agg.) seems to be due to something other than hybridism between well-defined taxa and, although it is useful to recognize some vars of M. pygmaea, no real solution is possible without intensive study of living plants.

FL.- FT. 11-1.

Well represented in A and W by specimens collected by R. H. Matthews in November and December 1898. 1899 and 1900, all labelled Kaitaia and possibly all from the same locality where it must have been well-established. In Herb. Kirk are two sheets, both without locality, one collected either by G. Mair or W.L.W. [Bishop Williams], the other very differently pressed from the Matthews specimens.