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  4. Ourisia confertifolia

Ourisia confertifolia

Mt Burns (January).<br>Photographer: John Smith-Dodsworth, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Ourisia confertifolia.<br>Photographer: Heidi Meudt, Licence: All rights reserved.
Ourisia confertifolia.<br>Photographer: Heidi Meudt, Licence: All rights reserved.
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Common names

mountain foxglove

Biostatus

Native – Endemic taxon

Category

Vascular

Structural class

Herbs - Dicotyledons other than Composites

Flower colours

White

Detailed description

Perennial herbs 35-88 mm tall, with erect inflorescences and repent leaves; stems 2.3-4.3 mm diameter; internodes 1.2-6.3 mm long, glabrous. Leaves rosulate, congested, rarely in subrosettes or opposite on creeping stem; petiole 3.5-15.0 x 1.6-8.6 mm, glabrescent, bearing sparse glandular/eglandular hairs on margins only; lamina 4.8-15.3 x 5.5-16.3 mm, spathulate, broadly to very broadly obovate, apex rounded, base cuneate, tapering with wide petiole, margin crenate or notched, upper surface glandular/eglandular silky-hairy, undersides punctate, glabrescent, with sparse glandular/eglandular hairs on the prominent veins. Inflorescences 1-6-flowered raceme, 35-105 mm long, bracteate bearing 1-3- flowering nodes, each bearing 2 bracts and 1-2 flowers; peduncles 0.9-2.3 mm diameter, glandular/eglandular pilose, villous. Floral bracts up to 7.7-12.6 x 3.8-7.6 mm, sessile, parallel to, and clasping peduncle, oblanceolate to broadly obovate, margin with regular to irregular notches near apex, densely glandular/eglandular pilose, villous. Flowers 11.8-19.3 x 9.4-16.5 mm; pedicel 7.5-20.3 mm long, glandular/eglandular pilose to villous. Calyx 5.5-8.8 x 4.5-11.3 mm, irregular, externally and on margins glandular/eglandular villous; anterior calyx lobes 4.6-9.4 x 1.9-3.9 mm, posterior calyx lobes 1.1-2.0 x 1.3-2.9 mm, 3 posterior lobes divided 1.4 the length of the calyx or less, 2 anterior lobes divided to near base, lanceolate to narrowly ovate, tapering to a subacute or rounded apex, undersides prominently 3-veined. Corolla 14.5-19.4 x 17.7-20.6 mm when flattened, bilabiate, tubular-funnelform, straight or curved, white, glabrous externally; tube 4.8-11.0 x 4.4-6.4 mm at apex, 2.0-3.9 mm at base, not constricted near base, yellow inside, glabrous; anterior corolla lobes 6.8-9.6 x 3.3-7.3 mm at widest point, 1.8-3.0 mm wide at base, posterior corolla lobes 5.5-7.3 x 2.7-6.1 mm wide at widest point, 1.7-3.0 mm wide at base, spreading, obovate apex plane, sometimes undulate or irregular. Stamens 4, didynamous; comprising two long stamens 6.1-7.6 mm long, included or exserted, and two short stamens 3.8-6.0 mm long, included or equal with lip; anthers 0.6-1.8 x 0.7-1.6 mm, reniform to horseshoe-shaped; staminode c.0.2 mm long, inserted c.0.1 mm above base of corolla, or absent. Style 3.2-4.8 mm long, base slightly bent, included or slightly exserted; stigma 0.4-1.0 mm diameter, emarginate; ovary 2.6-4.6 x 1.8-3.7 mm, glabrous. Capsules 4.5-7.1 x 3.3-4.8 mm, glabrous, with loculicidal dehiscence; fruiting pedicels 15.1-21.6 mm long. Seeds 0.7-1.0 x 0.4-0.5 mm.

Similar taxa

From all other Ourisia except O. simpsonii (L.B.Moore) Arroyo, it differs by the yellow, glabrous internal corolla tube, irregular calyces, glabrous leaf undersides, bracts, and paired flowers (which are never in whorls) in each flowering node. From O. simpsonii it differs by the smaller, narrower flowers and shorter styles (up to 4.9 cf. up to 7.5 mm). The corolla tube of O. simpsonii is sometimes purple (externally and internally), a colour never seen in O. confertifolia. Both species are allopatric, with O. simpsonii restricted to the northern half of the South Island and O. confertifolia the southern third.

Distribution

Endemic. South Island westerly from Haast Pass south to Fiordland

Habitat

Alpine (1200 - 2200 m a.s.l.) on soil or bare rock, boulders, cliff faces and rock crevices or in open herbfield and tussock grassland.

Current conservation status

The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2022-2023 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS) – more information about this can be found on the NZTCS website. This report includes replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Previous assessments can be found here.

  • Conservation status of vascular plants in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2023. 2024. Peter J. de Lange, Jane Gosden, Shannel P. Courtney, Alexander J. Fergus, John W. Barkla, Sarah M. Beadel, Paul D. Champion, Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Troy Makan and Pascale Michel Department of Conservation. Source: NZTCS and licensed by DOC for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.

2023 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: RR, Sp

Jump to previous conservation statuses

Threats

Not Threatened. Listed because it is considered to be a localised endemic.

Detailed taxonomy

Family

Plantaginaceae

Authority

Ourisia confertifolia Arroyo

Synonyms

None (described in 1984)

Endemic taxon

Yes

Endemic genus

No

Endemic family

No

Ecology

Flowering

November - February

Fruiting

January - May

Propagation technique

Difficult - should not be removed from the wild

Other information

Where To Buy

Not commercially available

Etymology

ourisia: After Ouris, governor of the Falkland Islands

NVS code

The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.

OURCON

Chromosome number

2n = 48

Previous conservation statuses

The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2022-2023 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS) – more information about this can be found on the NZTCS website. This report includes replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Previous assessments can be found here.

  • Conservation status of vascular plants in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2023. 2024. Peter J. de Lange, Jane Gosden, Shannel P. Courtney, Alexander J. Fergus, John W. Barkla, Sarah M. Beadel, Paul D. Champion, Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Troy Makan and Pascale Michel Department of Conservation. Source: NZTCS and licensed by DOC for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.

2017 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: RR, Sp

2012 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: RR, Sp

2009 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon

2004 | Range Restricted

Jump to current conservation status

Regional conservation statuses

The regional threat classification system leverages off the national assessments in the NZTCS, providing information relevant for the regional context. Otago conservation status information is sourced from the “Regional conservation status of indigenous vascular plants in Otago” Jarvie S et al. (2024) report.

Otago: 2024 | At Risk – Regionally Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: DPR, DPS, DPT, NS, NStr, RR, Sp, St

Referencing and citations

References and further reading

Meudt, H.M. 2006: Monograph of Ourisia (Plantaginaceae), Systematic Botany Monographs 77. 188pp.

Attribution

Description based on Meudt (2006).

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