Veronica colensoi

Detailed description

Openly branched, small bushy shrub or spreading low shrub to 0.4 (-0.75) m tall. Branches erect, old stems brown or grey; branchlets initially green, becoming brown, glabrous or, very sparsely puberulent, hairs bifarious; internodes (1.5-) 2-5 (-8) mm; leaf decurrencies evident. Leaf bud distinct, tetragonous in transverse section; sinus narrow and acute. Leaves decussate or subdistichous, erecto-patent; lamina obovate or elliptic (narrowly to broadly), coriaceous, shallowly m-shaped in transverse section (the margins being slightly revolute) or flat, (10-) 14-27 (-42) x (2-) 4.5-9 (-15.5) mm; apex subacute or obtuse; margin sometimes very narrowly cartilaginous, glabrous and minutely papillate (to the inside of outer cartilaginous portion), entire or shallowly toothed (may vary on one plant); upper surface glaucous (often less so than lower surface), with many stomata, glabrous or hairy along midrib; lower surface glaucous; petiole glabrous or hairy above. Inflorescences with (11-) 15-21 (-29) flowers, lateral and sometimes also terminal, tripartite and/or unbranched, only sometimes with more than three branches, (1,7-) 2.5-4.5 cm; peduncle 0.5-1.3 cm, glabrous (usually) or hairy: rachis (1.2-) 1.9-3.3 cm. Bracts alternate (lowermost pair may be subopposite or opposite), lanceolate or deltoid or oblong, acute or subacute, margins glabrous (usually) or hairy (very rarely, and only with a few cilia near base). Flowers hermaphrodite or female (on different plants). Pedicels longer than or equal to bracts, 0.5-2 (-3) mm. Calyx (1.5-) 2-2.5 (-3) mm, 4-5-lobed (5th lobe small, posterior), with anterior lobes free for most of their length or united to 1/3 – 2/3- way to apex; lobes deltoid or lanceolate, acute or subacute, margins glabrous (usually) or eglandular ciliolate (only ever with sparse, short hairs). Corolla tube glabrous; tube of hermaphrodite flowers 1.8-2.3 x 1-1.5 mm, funnelform, shorter than (mostly) or equalling calyx; lobes white at anthesis, lanceolate or ovate, subacute or obtuse, patent to recurved, longer than corolla tube. Stamen filaments 2-3.5 mm; anthers yellow or buff or pink or mauve or ,violet, 1.2-1.9 mm. Ovary ovoid (sometimes very narrowly), 0.8-1.3 mm; ovule, 4-8 per locule: style 2.2-4.5 mm. Capsules subacute, (2.5-) 2.8-3.5 (-3.8) x 1.9-2.5 mm, loculicidal split extending 1/4-1/2-way to base. Seeds flattened, more or less ellipsoid-oblong, more or less smooth, pale brown (with orange component), 1.1-1.5 x 0.7-0.9 mm, micropylar rim 0.2-0.3 mm.