Libertia ixioides (G.Forst.) Spreng.
Sisyrinchium ixioides Forst. f. Prodr. 1786, 61.
Tukauki, Mikoikoi.
Type locality: Queen Charlotte Sound(?). Type: BM, Forster.
Lfy fans closely bunched on short erect rhizomes; stolons known in only one geographically restricted form. Lvs (15)–50–(80) cm. × 5–15 mm., the two surfaces similar; inclined to turn yellow where exposed to full sun; nerves ∞, the median ones us. crowded and thickened, sts conspicuously light-coloured. Peduncles short, us. not carrying fls or frs above lvs. Panicle narrow, much but us. closely branched; upper bracts pale, often ½ pedicel-length. Pedicels rather stout, mostly < 2 cm. long. In fl.-bud per. sts yellowish, = or < ovary. Fls 1–1.5–2–(2.5) cm. diam.; tepals all white internally, widely patent; outer about half length of inner, and much narrower; inner us. orbicular to ovate, shortly unguiculate, incompletely overlapping outer. Staminal filaments very shortly connate; anthers c. 2 mm. long, pale. Ovary pale, ± trigonous and flat-sided, large for size of per.; style-branches distinctly winged, us. pointing outwards. Capsule to 1.5 cm. diam. but often less, globose to oblong in outline, yellow when full grown and remaining so for some months before dehiscing by short loculicidal clefts; old valves pale and not widely patent. Seed c. 2 × 1.5 mm., rounded, reticulate-patterned, yellow. n = 114.
DIST.: N., S., St.
Stream-edges, banks and rocks.
FL. 10–11. FT. 1–12.
Intraspecific variation is discussed and partly illustrated by Moore (loc. cit. 1967). The most aberrant form is one grown in gardens and originating from the Kopuapounamu Valley in the Raukumara Range. It is a strong-growing plant, vigorously stoloniferous; fls reach a diam. of 2.5 cm., with oblong outer tepals fully exposed between cuneate bases of inner tepals, and frs are also very large.
L. macrocarpa Klatt in Linnaea 31, 1861–62, 384 was based on garden plants and, in the absence of a type, is of slightly uncertain status. Its most probable place is in the synonymy of L. ixioides.
