Veronica glaucophylla Cockayne

A shrub to about 3 ft high; branches slender, with a strip of down above each leaf-axil running up to the base of the leaf above, or occasionally finely downy all over. Leaf-bud without sinus. Leaves spreading, lanceolate, 1⁄2 to 5⁄8 in. long, about 3⁄16 in. wide, tapered at the apex to a fairly acute point, usually glaucous above, glabrous except for the minutely ciliate margin. Inflorescence from the upper leaf-axils, two to three times as long as the subtending leaf; inflorescence axis downy; bracts shorter than the pedicels. Calyx-lobes ciliate, with a pale membranous border. Corollas white; tube about as long as the calyx, the corolla-lobes rounded, longer than the tube. Ovary and base of style downy. Capsules downy, rather pointed, more than twice as long as the calyx.

This species is part of the Veronica darwiniana aggregate as understood by Cheeseman, but the plant so named by Colenso is different, notably in having glabrous capsules (see further below). There is no wild material of V. glaucophylla in the Kew Herbarium, nor has any cultivated plant been seen which could unequivocally be referred to this species. The above description is therefore based on that given in Flora of New Zealand (Vol. 1 (1961), p. 917). A plant at Kew on the Temperate House terrace, which bore the label V. glaucophylla, disagrees with that species in a number of characters, notably in having glabrous capsules. A commercial plant seen under this name is V. albicans or near it. On the other hand the plant known as V. (or Hebe) darwiniana ‘Variegata’ is tolerably near to V. glaucophylla and so too are some plants in commerce as V. darwiniana. Both have slender, acute leaves.

Colenso collected and sent to Kew (as Veronica darwiniana) a form with glabrous ovaries and capsules from the hills behind Hawke’s Bay in North Island, but this has not been matched by any later collection. It is possible that plants may have been raised in Britain from Colenso’s material. The plants grown in gardens as Hebe darwiniana or Hebe darwiniana ‘Variegata’ are close to typical V. glaucophylla; but one commercial plant so named was V. pinguifolia.