Myosotis pygmaea Colenso var. pygmaea
Type locality: "On dry open heaths . . . between Matamau and Danneverke, Waipawa County". Type: W, 4743, W. Colenso.
Hairs rather stiff, spreading. Calyx with long hairs rather stiff, not appressed. short hairs retrorse towards base. Corolla us. white, 1·5-3 mm. diam., tube c. 2 mm. long. Nutlets c. 1·2 × 1 mm., tips often visible between calyx-lobes.
DIST.: N. On the coast at Anawhata, Hawera, Castlepoint; inland Hawke's Bay, Kaimanawa and Ruahine Mts. S. Nelson, Marlborough and east of main divide. St. C. Windlass Bay, J. H. Sorensen. Rocky, sandy and other open places, sealevel to 1200 m.
Colenso's specimens at W comprise W 4744 a fruiting plant with laterals up to 7 cm. long "Myosotis (an sp. nov.?) from edge of plain w. Nertera &c., nr Matamau, Decr. 17/82. W C (only 1 plant found)" and W 4743 two fruiting plants barely 2 cm. long "Myosotis nr type M. antarctica. Novr. 2/83. Heath nr Matamau". Plants similar to 4743 but in fl. are in type folder at K labelled "M. pygmaea Col. sp. nov. (recd. XXI 1885)". Colenso described fls as "pale-yellow".
Var. traillii (Kirk) Ckn. Veg. N.Z. 1921, 69, 72, and index. M. antarctica Hook. f. subsp. traillii Kirk in T.N.Z.I. 16, 1884, 373. Type locality: "Sandy places on west coast of Stewart Island". Type: W, 2666, Sand hills Mason Bay, T. Kirk, Jan. 13, 1882. The stiffish, rather sparse, ± appressed hairs distinguish this form from M. antarctica, as a var. of which it was described by Kirk, but it does not seem to be varietally distinct from M. pygmaea Col. published on an earlier page of the same journal. The original specimens are rather lax, with many-fld laterals up to 8 cm. long.
M. ramificata Simpson. Type locality: "A few miles south of Luggate, Central Otago". Type: BD 75720 "from shaded rock in openings on scrub-clad slopes" Geo. Simpson, Dec. 28, 1947. Simpson points out very accurately the differences between his sp. and M. tenericaulis but does not compare it with M. pygmaea, from which it seems to differ only in rather unusually long internodes and wholly erect hairs on calyx.
