Manual of the New Zealand Flora.
2. Oreostylidium, Berggr
2. Oreostylidium, Berggr.
A small stemless perennial herb. Leaves numerous, all radical. Scape short, 1 - flowered. Calyx more or less evidently 2-lipped; lower lip 2-fid, upper lip 3-fid. Corolla almost regular, campanulate, deeply 5-lobed; the lobes equal in size, irregularly spreading. Column short, straight, erect, much shorter than the corolla-lobes; anthers didymous, 4-celled and 4-lobed; lobes ultimately spreading; stigma placed between the anthers, 2-lobed, lobes spreading and deflexed. Ovary 2-celled or 1-celled by imperfection of the dissepiment; ovules numerous, attached to the centre of the dissepiment. Capsule coriaceous, indehiscent or tardily rupturing, more or less completely 2 - celled. Seeds numerous, obovoid; testa lax, cellular.
A monotypic genus confined to New Zealand. It differs from Stylidium in the corolla-lobes being equal in size, in the short erect column, and in the indehiscent fruit.
1. | O. subulatum, Berggr. in Minnesk. Fisiog. Sallsk. Lund. (1877) n. viii. 1, t. 1.—Small, densely tufted. Rootstock short, often emitting stolons; roots long, fibrous. Leaves spreading and recurved, ½–1½ in. long, linear - subulate, mucronate or almost pungent, rigid when dry, concave above, slightly convex beneath, quite glabrous; margins entire. Scape much shorter than the page 392 leaves, stout, and with the calyx glandular-pubescent. Flower small, ⅙ in. diam. Calyx-lobes variable in depth. Corolla-lobes oblong, obtuse. Capsule ¼ in. long, ovoid-oblong, almost woody. -O. affine, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xx. (1888) 197. Stylidium(?) subulatum, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 168. Phyllachne (Forstera) subulata, F. Muell. in Journ. Bot. 1878, 174.
North Island: Base of Tongariro, Berggren, Kirk! Ruahine Mountains, H. Tryon! South Island: Nelson—Not uncommon in mountain districts, Travers, Haast, Buchanan! T. F. C.; Mount Rochfort, Townson! Otago—Wet peaty localities in the east and south, Berggren, Kirk! Petrie! Buchanan. Stewart Island: Petrie! Kirk! Sea-level to 4000 ft. December–March. |