Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Port William, Stewart Id. Type: K, Lyall.

Stems elongate, prostrate, rather stout, ± flexible, branching, up to 3 dm. long; branchlets ± ascending, slender, rather densely clad in ± spreading white hairs; bark pale to rather dark brown. Lvs approximate to imbricate, on short broad petioles. Lamina narrow-oblong to ovate-elliptic to lanceolate (all forms may be on same plant), acute, subcoriac.; glabrate above, clad in lax silky hairs below; margins ciliate. Subfloral lvs broad-ovate. Infl. of 3-4-fld heads. Per. ± 8 mm. long, with spreading hairs; lobes ovate, obtuse, 3-4 mm. long. Fr. baccate or dry.

DIST.: S., St. Coastal sands of southern coast of Otago, Stewart and adjacent Is.

Hooker's description includes: "foliis . . . ⅓, unc. longis subdense quadrifariam imbricatis lineari-oblongis acutius rarius ellipso-ovatis . . ." Hooker later (Handbk N.Z. Fl. 1864, 245) included montane and subalpine material from both islands. Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 584) followed suit. In herbaria the "P. lyallii" folders have become a dumping ground for a motley assemblage of specimens. Cockayne (Veg. N.Z. 1921, 356) restricted the name to cover the dune plant of Otago and Stewart Id. None of the montane plants are conspecific.