Class
Order
Family
Classification
Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Wahlenbergia cartilaginea Hook.f., Handb. New Zealand Fl. 169-170 (1864)
Description
A perennial deep-rooting rhizomatous scree plant with distant rosettes of very thick, glaucous, (sometimes yellowish) sessile leaves, glabrous or pubescent. Leaves 8 × 5—25 × 15 mm, spathulate, obtuse, narrowed to a thick flat petiole; margins entire, thickened, cartilaginous. Scapes 2-3 cm long, stout, glaucous, with 1—3 small bracts, usually simple and stiff. Flower c. 12 mm long, 8—12 mm diameter, lilac, scented. Corolla broadly funnel-shaped, 5-partite, tube c. 5 × 6 mm, lobes c. 7 × 5 mm, enclosed within the large calyx lobes which are thick and coriaceous, glabrous, linear-oblong, obtuse, 6 × 2 to 10 × 3 mm. Capsule glabrous, often glaucous, globose to broadly turbinate, c. 8 × 8 to 10x10 mm. Seeds larger than in other species, 1 mm long, ellipsoid, glossy brown when mature. Insect-pollinated. FL Dec—Jan, FT Jan—Mar.
[Reproduced from Petterson (1997, New Zealand J. Bot. 35: 9–54) with permission from The Royal Society of New Zealand.]
Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
Bibliography
de Lange, P.J.; Norton, D.A.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Hitchmough, R.; Townsend, A.J. 2009: Threatened and uncommon plants of New Zealand (2008 revision). New Zealand Journal of Botany 47: 61–96. [Naturally uncommon]
de Lange, P.J.; Norton, D.A.; Heenan, P.B.; Courtney, S.P.; Molloy, B.P.J.; Ogle, C.C.; Rance, B.D. 2004: Threatened and uncommon plants of New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 42(1): 45–76.
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Barkla J.W.; Courtney, S.P.; Champion, P.D.; Perrie, L.R.; Beadel, S.N.; Ford, K.A.; Breitwieser, I.; Schönberger, I.; Hindmarsh-Walls, R.; Heenan, P.B.; Ladley, K. 2018: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017. New Zealand Threat Classification Series. No. 22. [Naturally Uncommon]
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Champion, P.D.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Norton, D.A.; Hitchmough, R.A. 2013: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012. New Zealand Threat Classification Series 3. Department of Conservation, Wellington. [Naturally Uncommon]
Hooker, J.D. 1864: Handbook of the New Zealand Flora: a systematic description of the native plants of New Zealand and the Chatham, Kermadec's, Lord Auckland's, Campbell's and Macquarie's Islands. Part I. Reeve, London.
Petterson, J.A. 1997: Revision of the genus Wahlenbergia (Campanulaceae) in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 35(1): 9–54.
