Ourisia crosbyi
Common name
Crosby’s mountain foxglove
Synonyms
Ourisia macphersonii Cockayne et Allan
Family
Plantaginaceae
Flora category
Vascular – Native
Endemic taxon
Yes
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Herbs - Dicotyledons other than Composites
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.
OURCRO
Chromosome number
2n = 48
Current conservation status
The threat classification status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2017 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS) – more information about this can be found on the NZTCS website This report includes a statistical summary and brief notes on changes since 2012 and replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Authors: By Peter J. de Lange, Jeremy R. Rolfe, John W. Barkla, Shannel P. Courtney, Paul D. Champion, Leon R. Perrie, Sarah M. Beadel, Kerry A. Ford, Ilse Breitwieser, Ines Schönberger, Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Peter B. Heenan and Kate Ladley. Please note, threat classifications are often suggested by authors when publications fall between NZTCS assessment periods – a suggested threat classification status has not been assessed by the NZTCS panel.
Source: NZTCS and licensed by DOC for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
2017 | Not Threatened
Previous conservation statuses
2012 | Not Threatened
2009 | Not Threatened
2004 | Not Threatened
Distribution
Endemic. South Island, mainly in the south-west from Westland through Fiordland to Southland. Also on Stewart Island.
Habitat
Coastal to montane (up to 1050 m a.s.l.) in favouring well-lit areas on the forest floor; or along steam-sides, near waterfalls and on rock slides. In the South Island, mainly in beech (Fuscospora spp., Lophozonia menziesii) forest.
Features
Perennial herb 132-490 mm tall, with erect leaves and inflorescences; stems 2.4-11.0 mm diameter, internodes 8.5-12.0 mm long, often obscured by leaves, mostly glabrous. Leaves opposite, along creeping stems, densely packed near growing tip; petiole 5.0-145.0 x 0.6-1.4 mm, sparsely or densely eglandular pilose or villous especially along margins; lamina 14.2-116.0 x 7.8-65.0 mm, narrowly ovate, ovate to broadly ovate, apex acute to subacute, base truncate, rarely cuneate or cordate, margin serrate or serrate-crenate, leaf surfaces, sparsely or densely eglandular pilose near apex (on undersides especially on veins). Inflorescence racemose, 1-40-flowered, 142-490 mm long, bracteate, with 3-6 flowering nodes, 2-12 bracts and 1-12 flowers per node; peduncle 1.2-5.9 mm diameter, densely eglandular pilose. Floral bracts up to 13.6-45.1 x 4.0-32.0 mm, sessile sometimes clasping peduncle, lanceolate, narrowly ovate to ovate, margins serrate, upper bracts with further teeth or subentire, eglandular pilose, sometimes only on margins or veins of undersides. Flowers 10.5-20.4 x 8.0-17.0 mm; pedicel 6.3-48.6 mm long, densely eglandular pilose. Calyx 4.2-7.8 x 4.2-9.3 mm, regular, externally and marginally eglandular pubescent, internally mostly glabrous, calyx lobes 4.3-8.1 x 0.6-1.6 mm, posterior all equally divided to base, narrowly lanceolate to lanceolate, apex acute or rounded, prominently 3-veined. Corolla 14.5-19.9 x 14.9-19.5 mm when flattened, bilabiate, tubular-funnelform, white, externally glabrous; tube 4.3-10.7 x 4.1-5.9 mm at apex, 2.4-3.8 mm wide at base, not constricted near base, slightly curved or straight, yellow inside; anterior corolla lobes 6.5-9.9 x 4.7-7.2 at widest point, 2.5-3.3 mm wide at base, posterior corolla lobes 4.3-7.5 x 4.4-7.9 mm wide at widest point, 2.6-2.9 mm wide at base, widely spreading, obcordate or obovate-spathulate, apex emarginate or not. Stamens 4, didynamous; comprising two long stamens 6.7-9.4 mm long, reaching tube opening, and two short stamens 4.5-7.0 mm long; anthers 0.5-1.0 x 0.6-1.2 mm, reniform to horseshoe-shaped; staminode if present c.0.6-0.9 mm long, inserted c.0.3-0.5 mm above base of corolla. Style 4.3-5.4 mm long, straight or angled from base, exserted or flush with tube opening; stigma 0.6-1.1 mm diameter, emarginate; ovary 2.6-3.9 x 1.3-2.3 mm, glabrous. Capsules 4.0-8.2 x 3.0-5.9 mm, glabrous, dehiscence loculicidal. Seeds 0.5-0.9 x 0.2-0.6 mm.
Similar taxa
Close to the Ourisia macrophylla Hook complex from which O. crosbyi differs by the serrated to serrate-crenate rather than crenate to crenate-serrate leaf and bracts, externally glabrous rather than hairy flowers, and densely, long eglandular, rather than densely short, glandular hairy pedicels.
Flowering
December - February
Flower colours
White
Fruiting
December - March
Propagation technique
Difficult - should not be removed from the wild
Etymology
ourisia: After Ouris, governor of the Falkland Islands
crosbyi: After Crosby-Smith
Where To Buy
Not commercially available
Attribution
Description based on Meudt (2006).
References and further reading
Meudt, H.M. 2006: Monograph of Ourisia (Plantaginaceae). Systematic Botany Monographs 77. 188pp.