Flora of New Zealand Series

W. laxa Simpson in T.R.S.N.Z. 79, 1952, 430.

Simpson's description is: "A glabrous flaccid perennial extending long slender, fleshy branching rhizomes putting up rather remote rosettes. Leaves of rosettes 2-4 cm. long, 4-5 mm. broad, linear-spathulate, obtuse, the upper portion of the blade irregularly crenate or dentate, the lower portion entire and gradually narrowed to a flattened, sparingly ciliate petiole equalling the blade. Margins frequently waved or recurved. Stem leaves few, linear or linear-lanceolate, 1·5-3 cm. long, [?] slender, sparingly branched; pedicels 4-15 cm. long, naked. Flowers solitary, terminating the branches, 1·5 cm. diam., white. Calyx obconic, 8 mm. long, deeply 5 partite, glabrous; teeth subulate. Corolla lobes obovate, acute. Capsule 6 mm. long, 4 mm. diam., obconical.

"Habitat: Grassland in forest openings and margins. Type specimen--from banks of the Doubtful River, Hanmer. . . . This species somewhat resembles W. albomarginata, but the rosettes are less closely spaced and each carries one or two stems branching in the manner of W. matthewsii."

BD 50061 b, cultivated from a Doubtful River plant, is accepted as the type. Root slender; stems very slender from slightly thickened stock, finely striate, simple, up to 24 cm. Basal lvs soon falling, membr., glab. or nearly so, obovate-spathulate, undulate or crisped, ± crenate; lamina up to 10-12 × 4-5-(7) mm., on slender petioles up to 15 mm. long. Cauline lvs distant, decreasing from c. 2 cm. × 3 mm., subsessile, linear to very narrow-spathulate. Fls solitary on elongate lax very slender peduncles. Calyx 5-7 mm. long, deeply cut into very narrow triangular-subulate lobes. Corolla white with fine dark veins, ± 2 × 2 cm., with deeply cut ovate, subacute lobes.

Very similar forms occur on Mount Egmont and Rough Peaks, and remain constant in cultivation.