Hebe parviflora (Vahl) Ckn. & Allan

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Hebe parviflora' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/hebe/hebe-parviflora/). Accessed 2024-03-28.

Genus

Synonyms

  • Veronica parviflora Vahl

Glossary

hybrid
Plant originating from the cross-fertilisation of genetically distinct individuals (e.g. two species or two subspecies).
section
(sect.) Subdivision of a genus.
variety
(var.) Taxonomic rank (varietas) grouping variants of a species with relatively minor differentiation in a few characters but occurring as recognisable populations. Often loosely used for rare minor variants more usefully ranked as forms.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Hebe parviflora' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/hebe/hebe-parviflora/). Accessed 2024-03-28.

H. parviflora is represented in cultivation mainly by the following variety:

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

var. angustifolia – On page 351 of the main work it was suggested that the hebe distributed by some nurserymen as ‘Spender’s Seedling’ is a hybrid of this species and variety with H. stricta. This conclusion is really based on its not agreeing at all points with the description in Flora of New Zealand. But H. parviflora is variable in its minuter botanical characters and there is no doubt that this plant belongs to H. parviflora var. angustifolia. It seeds itself freely, and a seedling allowed to grow on beside the parent plant studied agreed with it perfectly. It is among the most ornamental of the genus, of pleasingly informal aspect and flowering abundantly for a month from the end of July. It survives all but the severest winters. For the true ‘Spender’s Seedling’, see the section of garden hybrids in this supplement.


var. angustifolia (Hook, f.) L. B. Moore

Synonyms
V. parviflora var. angustifolia Hook, f.
H. angustifolia (A. Rich.) Ckn. & Allan
V. angustifolia A. Rich., not Fisch. & Link
V. squalida Kirk

A shrub 3 to 5 ft high, occasionally more, of rather thin, loose habit; branches slender, erect, glabrous and shining, turning dark brown towards the end of the season. Leaves stalkless (leaf-buds without sinus), linear, 1{1/2} to 3{1/2} in. long, {1/8} to {1/4} in. wide, tapering to a point, perfectly glabrous, often pointing downwards. Racemes in pairs from the leaf-axils near the summit of the shoot, 2 to 5 in. long, {3/4} in. wide; the basal flowers opening long before the terminal ones. Flowers white, tinged more or less with lilac, {1/6} to {1/4} in. diameter; tube of corolla slender, twice or thrice as long as the sepals, which are erect, oblong, edged with minute hairs. Individual flower-stalk slender, {1/8} to {1/4} in. long, and, like the main-stalk of the raceme, minutely downy. Bot. Mag., t. 5965.Native of the South Island of New Zealand and probably also of North Island; introduced about 1868, perhaps before. It is very distinct in its narrow leaves and purple-brown stems, and has considerable merit as a flowering shrub, producing its graceful racemes from July until November in successive pairs near the top of the growing shoot. It succumbs in severe winters.

var. arborea (Buchan.) L. B. Moore

Synonyms
V. arborea Buchan.
V. parviflora var. arborea (Buchan.) Kirk

A diffusely branched, evergreen shrub 6 ft and upwards high, but described as being sometimes in the wild a tree 20 to 25 ft high with a trunk 6 ft in girth near the base; young shoots slender, bearing the leaf-pairs from {1/8} to {1/2} in. apart. Leaves linear or linear-lanceolate, pointed, stalkless, 1 to 2{1/2} in. long, {1/6} to {1/4} in. wide, with minutely downy margins, otherwise glabrous. Flowers white with a tinge of lilac, {1/6} in. wide, densely produced during July and August on slender racemes up to 3 in. long from near the end of the branchlets; main flower-stalks downy. Calyx-lobes oblong, round-ended, margined with minute hairs; corolla-tube one and a half times the length of the calyx.Native chiefly of the North Island, New Zealand, up to 2,000 ft altitude, but occurring also near Queen Charlotte Sound at the north of the South Island. It appears to be the largest of all the New Zealand hebes and a tree 28 ft high with a trunk 2 ft in diameter is recorded. This hebe is not common in cultivation and probably tender, but there are specimens in the Kew Herbarium from gardens at Lewes (1948) and Stockbridge, Hants (1961).It should be noted that the description given above covers a wider range of plants than the original Veronica arborea of Buchanan. This was described from plants growing wild near Wellington which are ‘perfectly dome-shaped’ when young and have leaves 1 to 1{1/2} in. long, {1/6} in. wide and inflorescences scarcely longer than the leaves; leaves fascicled near the ends of the twigs (Fl. N.Z., Vol. 1, p. 913).