Veronica tetrasticha Hook.f.

An evergreen, small, freely branching shrub 3 to 6 in. high, forming tufts up to 1 ft across; shoots decumbent below, upper ones erect, hollowed on four sides and thus making them sharply tetragonous. Leaves very densely-set, 1⁄12 to 1⁄10 in. wide, narrowly spathulate, ciliate, imbricated in four vertical rows, each pair joining at the base to clasp the stem. Flowers white, 1⁄8 to 1⁄6 in. wide, borne in short two- to four-flowered spikes near the tips of the branches, stalks downy. Seed-vessels laterally compressed.

Native of the South Island of New Zealand at altitudes of 3,000 to 6,000 ft and quite hardy. This distinct and interesting dwarf shrub belongs to a small group of rock-dwelling species which have the whipcord foliage of V. cupressoides and its allies but differ in their laterally compressed seed-capsules and functionally unisexual flowers. For this group see Fl. N.Z., Vol. 1 (1961), pp. 944–946. V. tetrasticha is figured in Philipson and Hearn, Rock Garden Plants, plate 52.