Wahlenbergia pygmaea Colenso

Perennial rhizomatous herb with rosulate tufts of leaves at ground level. Leaves bright green, glossy, glabrous or with a few scattered hairs, oblong to oblanceolate to obovate to orbicularspathulate, 10 × 3 to 20 × 5 mm, sessile or gradually narrowed to a flat petiole 2 mm wide. Leaf margin subentire to serrate or crenate-serrate, or dentate, often undulate, sometimes red, with 2—7 exserted glandular marginal teeth on each side. Flowers erect or nodding on short upright scapes, 4—10 cm tall, which may be naked or 1—2-bracted. Corolla soft blue and white, sometimes pure white or all blue, usually with deeper-coloured veins; up to 30 mm diam., up to 18 mm long, broadly campanulate with tube as broad as or broader than long, lobes c. 9 × 7 mm, spreading, broadly elliptic-lanceolate, acute. Calyx lobes c. 3 × 1.5 mm, glabrous, narrow-triangular. Capsule c. 10 × 6 mm, glabrous, domed cylindrical to plump barrel-shaped. Seeds ellipsoid, glossy brown. Usually insect-pollinated, some forms self-fertile. FL Dec-May, FT Jan-May.

[Reproduced from Petterson (1997, New Zealand J. Bot. 35: 9–54) with permission from The Royal Society of New Zealand.]