Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Mount Arthur Plateau, margins of tarns. Type: A, 7209, F. G. Gibbs. Illustrated in Plate 137 of Ill. N.Z. Fl. 2, 1914.

Perennial forming lax to rather compact patches up to c. 15 cm. diam.; stems us. several, up to ± 15 cm. long, arising from a simple or branched stock, decumbent at base, then erect or ascending, slender. Lvs ∞, crowded at base of stems and branches, dark green, glossy above. Basal and lower lvs ∞, crowded, sessile or subsessile, with several minute scales at base, ± 8-15 × 2-3 mm., narrow-spathulate to narrow-elliptic to sublanceolate, rather thick and coriac. Upper cauline lvs similar, shorter, in 2-4 distant pairs. Infl. terminal and subterminal, fls paired or in threes or occ. solitary; bracts paired, similar to upper cauline lvs. Calyx c. 8 mm. long, cut 2/3 way or more into narrow-triangular or subulate to subacuminate lobes. Corolla white, ± 12 mm. diam. and long, sub-campanulate, cut 2/3 to 3/4 way into oblong- to broad-obovate obtuse lobes.

DIST.: S. Montane to subalpine damp grassland, herbfield and tarn margins, N.W. Nelson.

Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 730) says "perhaps more nearly allied to G. Townsoni than to any other". The affinity, however, is definitely with G. vernicosa. Within the range of the two spp. are many forms not at present definitely referable to either sp. The populations have not been sufficiently studied in this regard. The description of Cheeseman over-emphasizes the tendency to form "a compact sward".