Veronica petriei
Synonyms
Mitrasacme petriei Buchanan, Leonohebe petriei (Buchanan) Heads, Hebe petriei (Buchanan) Cockayne et Allan
Family
Plantaginaceae
Flora category
Vascular – Native
Endemic taxon
Yes
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons
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.
HEBPET
Chromosome number
2n = 42
Current conservation status
The conservation 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). 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.
2018 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon
Previous conservation statuses
2012 | Not Threatened
2009 | Not Threatened
2004 | Not Threatened
Brief description
Low growing sprawling shrub bearing pairs of rounded green fleshy leaves inhabiting western Otago mountains. Leaves 5-7.5mm long by 2.5-5mm wide, hardly narrowing to leaf stalk. Leaf bud with narrow gap between leaves at base. Flower spike conspicuous, rounded, at tip of twigs, to 6cm long.
Distribution
Mountains of Otago and Southland, South Island, including Mount Repulse, the Pisa Range, and the Forbes, Humboldt, Livingstone, Hector, Eyre, Garvie and Takitimu mountains.
Habitat
It grows on alpine rocks and scree.
Features
Subshrub or spreading low shrub to 0.3 m tall. Branches decumbent. old stems red-brown or brown; branchlets green or purplish, glabrous or minutely puberulent, hairs bifarious; internodes 1.5-6 (-9) mm; leaves not readily abscising, persisting on stem, or decaying leaving basal parts attached. Leaf bud more or less indistinct and tightly surrounded by recently diverged leaves; sinus narrow and acute. Leaves decussate to subdistichous, connate, erectopatent to recurved; lamina obovate or oblong or elliptic (often narrowly), slightly fleshy, concave (shallowly), (4-) 5-7.5 (-12) x (2-) 2.5-5 (-5.5) mm; apex obtuse to rounded; midrib slightly thickened below; margin not cartilaginous, not thickened, minutely ciliolate, occasionally tinged red; upper surface green, dull, without evident or with few stomata, hairy toward base; lower surface green; petiole (0.5-) 1-2.5 (-3) mm, hairy along margins and above. Inflorescences with 18-62 flowers, terminal, unbranched (sometimes with numerous sterile bracts towards the base), 0.8-2.5 (-6) cm; peduncle 0.1-0.7 cm; rachis 0.5-4.2 cm. Bracts alternate, linear to narrowly ovate sometimes minutely hairy outside (especially on lower, sterile bracts). Flowers hermaphrodite or female (on different plants). Pedicels always shorter than bracts, 0.5-2.5 mm (longest towards base of inflorescence). Calyx 4-5 (-6.5) mm; lobes linear (usually) to narrowly oblong, acute to subacute. Corolla tube glabrous; tube of hermaphrodite flowers (4.2-) 5-5.5 (-7) x 1.5-2 mm, cylindric, longer than (usually) or equalling calyx; lobes white at anthesis. elliptic (usually narrowly), subacute to obtuse (posterior sometimes emarginate), suberect to recurved, equalling or shorter than corolla tube. Stamen filaments remaining erect, 1.3-1.7 mm (hermaphrodite flowers); anthers magenta, 0.9-1.5 (-2) mm; sterile anthers of female flowers magenta. Ovary conical, 2-2.5 mm; ovules 8-15 per locule; style 3-6 mm; stigma more conspicuous in female flowers. Capsules acute, 4-4.5 x 1.7-2.3 mm, loculicidal split extending 1/3-way to base. Seeds flattened, ellipsoid to discoid, brown, 0.7-1.1 x 0.6-0.9 mm, micropylar rim 0.2-0.3 mm.
Similar taxa
Similar to V. murrelli (see notes under that species). It is also similar to V. kellowiae, in having shortly connate leaves, sterile bracts sometimes present at the base of inflorescences, and magenta anthers held at the mouth of the cylindrical corolla tube. V. petriei has longer corolla tube (5-5.5 mm) and calyx (4-5 mm) than V. kellowiae (2.8-3.5 mm and 2.5-4 mm respectively); V. petriei also usually has a simple terminal inflorescence with alternate bracts and pedicellate flowers, compared to V. kellowiae having a terminal inflorescence with opposite bracts and sessile flowers.
Flowering
(October-) December-February (-March)
Flower colours
White
Fruiting
(November-) March
Life cycle
Seeds are wind dispersed (Thorsen et al., 2009).
Propagation technique
Despite the similarities between V. petriei and V. kellowiae, the two are geographically disjunct, and analysis of ITS sequences (e.g. Wagstaff et al. 2002) does not suggest that they are closely related.
Etymology
veronica: Named after Saint Veronica, who gave Jesus her veil to wipe his brow as he carried the cross through Jerusalem, perhaps because the common name of this plant is ‘speedwell’. The name Veronica is often believed to derive from the Latin vera ‘truth’ and iconica ‘image’, but it is actually derived from the Macedonian name Berenice which means ‘bearer of victory’.
petriei: Named after Donald Petrie (1846 -1925), Scottish born Otago botanist
Notes on etymology
Donald Petrie discovered this species and collected the type specimen (Bayley and Kellow, 2006)
Attribution
Description adapted by M. Ward from Bayly & Kellow (2006).
References and further reading
Bayly M. and Kellow A. 2006. An Illustrated Guide to New Zealand Hebes.Te Papa Press: Wellington
Thorsen, M. J.; Dickinson, K. J. M.; Seddon, P. J. 2009. Seed dispersal systems in the New Zealand flora. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 11: 285-309
Wagstaff, S.J., Bayly, M. J., Garnock-Jones, P. J. and Albach, D. C. 2002. Classification, origin, and diversification of the New Zealand Hebes (Scrophulariaceae). Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 89:38-63.
NZPCN Fact Sheet citation
Please cite as: Ward, M.D. (Year at time of access): Veronica petriei Fact Sheet (content continuously updated). New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/veronica-petriei/ (Date website was queried)