Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Asterales Link
Family
Campanulaceae
Genus
Wahlenbergia Schrad. ex Roth
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Wahlenbergia vernicosa J.A.Petterson, New Zealand J. Bot. 35: 26-29 (1997)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Wahlenbergia littoricola subsp. vernicosa (J.A.Petterson) de Lange & E.K.Cameron, New Zealand J. Bot. 37: 435 (1999)
 Description

Characters of the radicate group. Short-lived perennials with lifespan about 2 years. Root branching, fleshy, brittle. Stems 10—150 cm tall, fleshy and brittle in life, juveniles with opposite leaves, adult plants with mostly alternate sessile leaves, some stems and laterals with lower leaves opposite. Branches often closely divaricating, young shoots hairy, with crowded leaves. Leaves usually elliptic to oblanceolate, 10-40 × 5-10 mm, regularly and closely serrate, glabrous, bright green, fleshy and glossy as if varnished (in life), sparsely hairy, with prominent midrib below; sometimes linear, entire. Flowers in different populations may be white, pastel lilac (HCC 437/1), or flax blue (HCC 642/2), on short slender pedicels 2—7 cm long. Corolla campanulate, (10—)12—15(—20) mm diam., 9—12 mm long, tube cylindrical (cup-shaped), 2 × 2 to 4 × 4 mm, lobes 5 × 4 to 8 × 5 mm, oblong, subacute, spreading; style protruding slightly from tube, slightly thickened in upper half, white. Stigmas 3 or 4, small. Calyx lobes glabrous, 3 × 1 to 4 × 1.5 mm, narrowly triangular, becoming radiate or recurved in fruit. Capsule glabrous, obconic, 6 × 4 to 10 × 5 mm, flat-topped or slightly concave at the top, valves flat until ripe. Self-fertile. Seeds 0.5 mm long. FL Oct- May, FR Nov—May.

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

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Non-endemic)
 Bibliography
de Lange, P.J.; Cameron, E.K. 1999: The vascular flora of Aorangi Island, Poor Knights Islands, northern New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 37: 433–468.
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. [Not Threatened]
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. [Not Threatened]
Petterson, J.A. 1997: Revision of the genus Wahlenbergia (Campanulaceae) in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 35(1): 9–54.
Prebble, J.M.; Meudt, H.M.; Garnock-Jones, P.J. 2012a: An expanded molecular phylogeny of the southern bluebells (Wahlenbergia, Campanulaceae) from Australia and New Zealand . Australian Systematic Botany 25(11): 30.
Prebble, J.M.; Meudt, H.M.; Garnock-Jones, P.J. 2012b: Phylogenetic relationships and species delimitation of New Zealand bluebells (Wahlenbergia, Campanulaceae) based on analyses of AFLP data . New Zealand Journal of Botany 50: 365–378.