The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network

Species

Veronica epacridea

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'.
epacridea: Resembling plants in the family Epacridaceae (a Southern heath family now included in Ericaceae)

Common Name(s)

Hebe

Current Conservation Status

2012 - Not Threatened

Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012
The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2012 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS). This report includes a statistical summary and brief notes on changes since 2009 and replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Authors: Peter J. de Lange, Jeremy R. Rolfe, Paul D. Champion, Shannel P. Courtney, Peter B. Heenan, John W. Barkla, Ewen K. Cameron, David A. Norton and Rodney A. Hitchmough. File size: 792KB

Previous Conservation Status

2009 - Not Threatened
2004 - Not Threatened

Authority

Veronica epacridea Hook.f.

Family

Plantaginaceae

Brief Description

Low growing shrub with erect twigs bearing pairs of small curved reddish green or green thick fleshy rounded leaves that hardly narrow to a broad leaf stalk that touch those of the opposing leaf inhabiting South Island mountains. Dead leaves persist at base of twigs. Leaves to 9mm long.

Flora Category

Vascular - Native

NVS Species Code

HEBEPA

Structural Class

Dicotyledonous Trees & Shrubs

Synonyms

Hebe epacridea (Hook.f.) Cockayne et Allan nom. superf., nom. illeg., Leonohebe epacridea (Hook.f.) Heads, Hebe epacridea (Hook.f.) Andersen

Distribution

South Island mountains, chiefly on or east of the Main Divide, from the Devil Range, North-West Nelson, to the Eyre and Livingstone Mountains, Southland.

Habitat

Open alpine areas on rock debris or scree. Together with Veronica birleyi and Ranunculus grahamii, it grows al the highest altitudes known for any vascular plant in New Zealand (approximately 2900 m a.s.l in the Malte Brun Range, Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park).

Features

Spreading low shrub (sometimes more or less mat-like) to 0.4 m tall. Branches decumbent or ascending, old stems brown; branchlets green or purplish, puberulent to pubescent or glabrous (rarely), hairs bifarious (usually) or uniform; internodes 1-3 (-4.5) mm; leaves not readily abscising, persistent along the stem for some distance. Leaf bud tightly surrounded by recently diverged leaves. Leaves decussate, connate, usually patent to recurved or erect to erecto-patent; lamina broadly oblong or ovate or elliptic, rigid, somewhat concave or flat (plants from Otago or Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park lack thickened margins), (2.5-) 4-8 (-9) x 2.5-5.5 (-7) mm: apex obtuse or subacute; midrib thickened and evident below (usually forming a prominent keel, except on plants without a thickened leaf margin); margin not cartilaginous, conspicuously thickened (the outward manifestation of a rigid intramarginal vein) or not thickened (on plants that lack a marginal vein), commonly ciliate (toward base and, on one plant from Roys Peak, along entire margin) or minutely papillate or glabrous, sometimes tinged red, entire (usually) or minutely crenulate (rarely) or shallowly toothed (seen on one plant from Otago only); upper surface dark to light green, dull, with many stomata, glabrous; lower surface green, hairy toward base (along connate portion). Inflorescences with 2-8 flowers (per spike), terminal and lateral (arranged as spikes in the axils of little-altered leaves, forming a compact terminal flowering head), unbranched, (0.5-) 0.8-2.6 cm (whole flowering head). Bracts opposite and decussate or lowermost pair opposite, then subopposite or alternate above, connate, ovate or deltoid, obtuse or subacute or acuminate, sometimes hairy outside. Flowers hermaphrodite or female (on different plants). Pedicels absent. Calyx 3.4-5.8 mm; lobes oblong or ovate or elliptic or lanceolate, obtuse or subacute or acuminate. Corolla tube glabrous; tube of hermaphrodite flowers 3.8- 4.8 (-5.4) x 1.6-2.2 mm, cylindric and contracted at base, equalling or longer than calyx; tube of female flowers 2.4-4 x 1.3-1.9 mm, cylindric or funnelform, shorter than (only slightly) or equalling calyx; lobes white at anthesis, elliptic or ovate or obovate (narrowly}, obtuse or subacute, suberect to recurved, shorter than corolla tube. Stamen filaments remaining erect, 0.1-1.2 mm (approximately 0.8-1.2 mm for stamens of hermaphrodite flowers, 0.1-0.4 mm for staminodes of female flowers); anthers yellow or pink to purple, 1.2-2.1 mm; sterile anthers of female flowers pink, 0.8-1.1 mm. Ovary sometimes hairy, 0.8-1.4 mm, apex (in septum view) obtuse or slightly emarginate; ovules 8-18 per locule, in 1-2 layers; style 2.5- 6(-7) mm (generally longer in hermaphrodite flowers than in female flowers), rarely hairy (especially toward base); stigma more prominent in female flowers. Capsules subacute, 2.7-4.5 x 1.5-2.6 mm, sometimes hairy, septicidal split extending ¾-way to base or completely to base, loculicidal split extending¼- (mostly) to ½-way to base. Seeds weakly flattened, ellipsoid or ovoid or obovoid, straw-yellow, 0.8-1 (-1.1) x 0.5-0.7 mm, micropylar rim 0.2-0.3 mm.

Flowering

December - February (-April)

Flower Colours

White

Fruiting

December - April (-September)

Threats

Not Threatened

Chromosome No.

2n = 42

Endemic Taxon

Yes

Endemic Genus

No

Endemic Family

No

Life Cycle and Dispersal

Seeds are wind dispersed (Thorsen et al., 2009).

This page last updated on 13 Nov 2019