Veronica macrocalyx var. humilis

Detailed description

Subshrub to 20cm high. Branches prostrate to decumbent, old stems brown; branchlets green to purplish, glabrous or puberulent, hairs bifarious; internodes 1-5.5 (-10.9) mm; leaves not readily abscising, persisting on stem, or decaying leaving basal parts attached. Leaf bud tightly surrounded by recently diverged leaves. Leaves often slightly keeled, decussate to slightly subdistichous, connate, erecto-patent to patent; lamina obovate to spathulate or elliptic to ovate or rhomboid, fleshy, concave, 5.5-11 (-13.5) x (2-) 3-7.5 (-8.5) mm; apex obtuse; midrib slightly thickened below and slightly depressed to grooved above; not cartilaginous, not thickened, glabrous or glandular-ciliate and sometimes minutely papillate, usually tinged red, entire or rarely shallowly toothed; upper surface green, dull to glossy, with many stomata, glabrous; lower surface green, dull to glossy; petiole (1-) 2-5 mm, hairy along margins. Inflorescences with 2-12 flowers per spike, 3-12 spikes per flowering head, terminal and lateral (arranged, often laxly, in a flowering head), unbranched, (0.5-) 1-3 (-4.3) cm (total length of flowering head), spikes about equal to subtending leaves (flowering head usually longer than subtending leaves); peduncle approximately 0.1 cm, hairy or glabrous; rachis 0.3-0.4 (-0.6) cm (longest when growing in shade). Bracts lowermost pair opposite, then subopposite or alternate above, connate or rarely free, lanceolate to linear or sometimes deltoid, subacute (usually) or obtuse, margins glabrous or hairy. Flowers hermaphrodite or female (on different plants). Pedicels absent. Calyx 4.5-7 mm, 4-5-lobed (5th lobe small, posterior); lobes red at apex, oblong to linear, or deltoid (sometimes, in Nelson populations only), subacute to obtuse or occasionally acute, with minute mixed glandular and eglandular cilia (usually) or glabrous. Corolla tube glabrous; tube of hermaphrodite flowers (2.5-) 4-6 x 1.5-2.5 mm, cylindric, shorter to longer than calyx (sometimes); tube of female flowers 3-4 x 1.5-2.2 mm, funnelform, shorter than calyx; lobes white at anthesis, ovate (usually) to elliptic, subacute to obtuse, patent to recurved (with age), shorter than (usually) to longer than (rarely) corolla tube. Stamen filaments remaining erect, 0.5-1.3 mm; anthers magenta, 1-1.9 mm; sterile anthers of female flowers white, 0.8 -1.1 mm. Ovary narrowly ovoid to conical, 2-2.5 mm; ovules 18-28 per locule, in 1-3 layers; style 3-8 mm on hermaphrodite flowers, 5-6 mm on female flowers; stigma larger in female flowers. Capsules acute to subacute, 3.5-4.5 (-5.5) x 2-3.5 mm, loculicidal split extending ¼-½-way to base. Seeds flattened, ellipsoid or more or less discoid, straw-yellow, 0.7-1 x 0.5-0.9 mm, micropylar rim 0.1-0.3 mm.