Veronica strictissima

Detailed description

Bushy shrub to 2.5 m tall. Branches erect, old stems brown or grey; branchlets olive-green or red-brown, minutely puberulent (usually) or glabrous, hairs bifarious; internodes (1-) 2-13 (-18) mm; leaf decurrencies evident to obscure (often with narrow ridges along medial line and margins). Leaf bud distinct; sinus absent. Leaves erecto-patent to patent; lamina linear-lanceolate or narrowly oblong, subcoriaceous, flat or concave, (9-) 16-41 (-49) x 3-7 (-8) mm; apex acute to subacute or shortly apiculate; 2 lateral secondary veins sometimes evident at base of fresh leaves; margin sometimes more or less cartilaginous, usually eglandular puberulent or sometimes glabrous; upper surface green, dull, with many stomata, hairy along midrib or glabrous; lower surface light green. Inflorescences with (11-) 20-72 flowers, lateral, unbranched, 1.7-7.7 (-10.7) cm, almost always longer than or very rarely about equal to subtending leaves; peduncle (0.3-) 0.4-1 (-1.5) cm; rachis 1.2-6.5 (-9.2) cm. Bracts alternate, ovate or deltoid (sometimes narrowly), obtuse (mostly) to acute. Flowers hermaphrodite or female (on different plants). Pedicels 1-4 mm, hairy (indumentum sometimes sparse when compared with that of peduncle and rachis). Calyx 1.5-2 (-2.5) mm; lobes ovate, obtuse. Corolla tube hairy inside; tube of hermaphrodite flowers 1.4-2.9 x 1.3-1.7 mm, funnelform, equalling or slightly longer than calyx; tube of female flowers approximately 1.3-1.8 mm, funnelform, equalling or slightly longer than calyx; lobe, white or tinged deep mauve at anthesis, circular or elliptic (often broadly) or oblong (anterior only), obtuse (posterior sometimes emarginate), suberect to recurved, longer to shorter than corolla tube (posterior lobe always longer than tube, anterior lobe often shorter than tube). Stamen filaments incurved at apex in bud, 3-5 mm; anthers dark magenta or purple, 1.2-1.8 mm; sterile anthers of female flowers purple or light brown. Ovary sometimes hairy, 0.9-1.3 mm; ovules 11-16 per locule, in 1-2 layers; style 2.3-6 mm, sometimes hairy. Capsules subacute or obtuse, 2.9-4 x approximately 2.2-2.6 mm, occasionally hairy, loculicidal split extending up to ¾-way to base. Seeds flattened, more or less broad ellipsoid, not winged to only weakly winged, brown, 1-1.6 x (0.8-) 0.9-1.3 mm, micropylar rim 0.1-0.4 mm.