Veronica rupicola

Detailed description

Low-growing bushy shrub to 0.8 (-1.5) m tall. Branches decumbent or ascending or erect, old stems brown: branchlets green (but dark when dry), pubescent or puberulent, hairs bifarious (usually in broad bands between leaf decurrencies); internodes (1-) 2-9 (-18) mm; leaf decurrencies extended for length of internode and often swollen. Leaf bud distinct; sinus narrow and acute. Leaves erecto-patent to patent; lamina elliptic (mostly) or oblanceolate, coriaceous, slightly concave, (4-) 7-21 (-24) x (2-) 5-7 (-9) mm; apex acute to obtuse; midrib thickened below and depressed to grooved above (but evident above to varying extents); margin minutely papillate and sometimes ciliolate or glandular-ciliate; upper surface light green or yellowish-green, dull, with many stomata, glabrous or hairy along midrib; lower surface light green or sometimes glaucous or glaucescent; petiole (1-) 2-4 (-5) mm, hairy along margins (usually) and hairy above (often) or glabrous. Inflorescences with (5-) 9-37 flowers, lateral, unbranched or tripartite, 1.3-3 (-4.7) cm, longer than (usually) to shorter than subtending leaves; peduncle (0.3-) 0.6-1.7 (-2) cm; rachis (0.7-) 1-2.1 (-2.9) cm. Bracts large, opposite and decussate, free (usually) or connate (sometimes, and then very shortly), ovate or lanceolate, acute (mostly) or subacute or obtuse. Flowers hermaphrodite or female (on different plants). Pedicels usually absent but if evident then always shorter than bracts, 0-1 mm. Calyx 3-4 (-5) mm, with anterior lobes free for most of their length or united 1/4-½-way to apex (degree of fusion can vary in one inflorescence); lobes ovate or lanceolate, subacute or obtuse. Corolla tube glabrous; tube of hermaphrodite flowers 3-4.9 x 1.5-2.3 mm, funnelform (narrowly) or cylindric, longer than (usually) or equalling calyx; lobes white at anthesis, ovate (sometimes narrowly) or lanceolate, subacute or obtuse, suberect to recurved, shorter to longer than corolla tube. Stamen filaments white, 3.3-4.2 mm; anthers white or buff or pink or mauve or violet, 1.3-1.7 mm; sterile anthers 0.6-0.8 mm (on herbarium specimens). Ovary approximately 1-1.3 mm; ovules 8-9 per locule; style 5.5-8.3 mm. Capsules obtuse, 4-4.5 x 2.3-3.2 mm, loculicidal split extending ¼-½-way to base. Seeds flattened, ovoid to obovoid-oblong, straw-yellow to pale brown, 1.4-2.2 x 0.9-1.4 mm, micropylar rim 0.5-0.7 mm.