Kingdom: Plantae
(Unranked): Angiosperms
(Unranked): Eudicots
(Unranked): Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Plantaginaceae
Genus: Hebe
Species: H. buchananii
Binomial name: Hebe buchananii
Common name: Hollow-leaved Hebe
Hebe buchananii is variable in the wild. It is a tiny glaucous leaved plant with white flowers, compact and low growing. Its height may be between 1.2 in 3 cm and 30 cm. There are a number of forms in cultivation. The evergreen leaves are green or green-blue, broadly spear-shaped, 4–6 mm long. Some forms can be shy flowering. White flowers appear November to March.
It is named after John Buchanan, a Scotsman who botanised in New Zealand and Campbell Island. It was discovered in the Otago lakes district in the early 1850s by Buchanan and James Hector.
Hebe buchananii is found wild in the South Island from Canterbury’s Godley Valley southwards to the Central Lake District. It often grows in gravel and among rocks.
It is closely related to Hebe pinguifolia.
