Ourisia modesta

Ourisia modesta plants are small perennial herbs. The stems are creeping, with opposite leaves that are widely spaced along the horizontal stem. Leaf petioles are 4.5–33.7 mm long. Leaf blades are 4.0–14.9 mm long by 4.6–12.3 mm wide (length: width ratio 0.8–1.1: 1), very broadly ovate or circular, widest at or below the middle, with a rounded apex, truncate or slightly cordate base and smooth or irregularly notched edges. Leaves are mostly glabrous (hairless), rarely with a few non-glandular hairs on the upper surface, and densely punctate on the lower surface. Inflorescences are ascending, with hairy racemes (sometimes densely hairy) up to 90 mm long, with non-glandular hairs, and with 1–2 flowering nodes and up to 2 total flowers per raceme. Each flowering node has 1 flower and 2 sessile, petiolate to sessile bracts that are usually broadly to very broadly ovate. The lowest bracts are similar to the leaves, 3.7–9.3 mm long and 3.9–9.3 mm wide, and become smaller toward the apex of the raceme. The flowers are borne on a sparsely hairy pedicel that is up to 15.8 mm long and has non-glandular hairs only. The calyx is 3.7–8.2 mm long, irregular, with two lobes divided to the base and three lobes divided to one-quarter to one-third the calyx length, often glabrous or sometimes with non-glandular hairs. …

Ourisia modesta is endemic to New Zealand. It is known from few populations that are disjunct in the North Island (Ruahine Range), South Island (Western Nelson and Southland) and Stewart Island, on flats or in forest, in moist hollows, near streams, and in bogs or wet sites that occasionally experience flooding, from sea level to 500 m (1,600 ft) above sea level.