Veronica pubescens subsp. rehuarum

Detailed description

Shrub to 1.5 m tall. Branches erect or spreading; old stems brown to red-brown; youngest branchlets green to red; internodes 1–39 mm long; stems minutely and uniformly puberulent or glabrous, hairs when present eglandular. Leaf bud about as long as mature leaves; sinus usually present glabrous or minutely puberulent, small and rounded. Leaves decussate, erecto-patent to recurved; lamina lanceolate, narrowly elliptic, or linear-lanceolate, subcoriaceous to coriaceous, more or less flat, 25–65 × 7–19 mm; apex subacute or acute or obtuse; base truncate or cuneate; midrib thickened beneath and depressed to grooved above; margin narrowly cartilaginous, bevelled to rounded, (usually with at least some hairs toward base) or glabrous, entire; upper surface dark to yellowish green, dull to somewhat glossy, underside of lamina glabrous,; underside of midrib glabrous or hairy, hairs when present being < 0.2 mm long; midrib pubescent to puberulent (at least toward base); hairs minute, glandular; lower surface green or light green, dull. Petiole 0.5–4.0 mm long. Inflorescences with 20–190 flowers, lateral, racemose and unbranched, 55–100 mm long, longer than (mostly) or about equal to subtending leaves; peduncle 3–28 mm long, eglandular pubescent; rachis 17–175 mm long, eglandular-pubescent; bracts alternate, acute or subacute, ciliate, narrowly deltoid or lanceolate; pedicels ›, = to or ‹ bracts, eglandular-pubescent, erecto-patent or patent to slightly recurved at anthesis, erecto-patent, ascending or recurved at fruiting. Flowers on individual plants hermaphrodite or female. Calyx 1.7–4.0 mm long, 4-lobed, equally divided; lobes all similar, deltoid or lanceolate, acute, acuminate or subacute, outer surface glabrous, occasionally minutely hairy, margins sometimes tinged pink. Corolla lobes mauve at anthesis and white after pollination, glabrous, corolla tube always white, glabrous or nearly so, 2.7–3.9 ×, 1.3–1.9 mm, narrowly funnelform to shortly cylindric and contracted at base, equalling or longer than calyx; usually hairy inside and sometimes hairy outside; posterior lobe lanceolate or elliptic, subacute or obtuse, suberect to patent; lateral lobes lanceolate or elliptic, subacute or obtuse, suberect; anterior lobe lanceolate, subacute to obtuse, suberect. Stamen filaments white, 4.5–6 mm long; anthers subacute to conspicuously apiculate, mauve or purple, 1.1–1.5 mm long. Nectarial disc glabrous. Ovary ovoid, 0.9–1.1 mm long, glabrous or sparsely so (especially alogn septal grooves); style 3.5–10.5 mm long, white or mauve; stigma no wider than style, yellow, green, mauve, red at anthesis. Capsules obtuse or subacute, dark brown, 2.5–5.0 × 2.0–3.4 mm, septicidal split extending to base, loculicidal split extending ¼– ½ way to base.