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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.
3. Hectorella, Hook. f
3. Hectorella, Hook. f.
A small densely tufted glabrous perennial. Leaves small, densely imbricated, coriaceous, entire. Flowers almost sessile amongst the uppermost leaves. Sepals 2, short, truncate. Petals 5, connate at the base, thickened below the tip. Stamens 5, inserted on the tube of the corolla, and alternate with the petals; anthers linear-oblong. Ovary free; ovules 4–5, erect from the base of the cell; funicles slender; style erect; stigmas 1–3, linear, papillose. Capsule membranous, equalling the sepals; seeds 2–4.
A monotypic genus confined to New Zealand; not closely allied to any other.
| 1. | H. cæspitosa, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 27.—Stems short, stout, densely tufted, with the leaves on almost as thick as the little finger, forming compact rounded cushions 2–8 in. diam. and 1–3 in. high. Leaves very numerous, closely imbricated in many series, ⅙–⅓ in. long, broadly triangular-ovate to linear-oblong with a broad base, thin and membranous below the middle, coriaceous and keeled above; margins and tip thickened; veins reticulated. Flowers small, white, very shortly peduncled, forming a ring round the top of the branches among the uppermost leaves, often unisexual, the staminate ones being the smallest. Sepals concave, keeled. Petals much longer than the sepals. Capsule globose, membranous, as long as the sepals. Seeds 2–4, broadly ovoid, smooth and shining.—Hook. f. in Hook. Ic. Plant. t. 1046; Kirk, page 73Students' Fl. 65. H. elongata, Buch. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi (1884) 395, t. 35.
South Island: Canterbury—Mountains above Arthur's Pass, T. F. C.; Mount Cook district, F. G. Gibbs, T. F. C. Otago—Mount Alta; Mount Aspiring, Hector and Buchanan! Hector Mountains, Dunstan Mountains, and all high mountains west of the Clutha River, Petrie! Altitudinal range from 4000 to 6500 ft. Mr. Buchanan's H. elongata, based on more laxly branched specimens with longer linear-oblong leaves, looks different at first sight, but (as Mr. Kirk has remarked) is connected with the typical state by numerous transitional forms. |