Family: Scrophulariaceae

Origin: the species is from South Island, New Zealand

This is a cultivar (cultivated variety) of a small shrub introduced around 1868; young stems are plum-coloured; the leaves are a very beautiful grey-green, in four ranks; the white flowers are borne in short clusters in May, with a second flush in late summer.

A popular edging shrub for tubs, rock gardens and ground cover. The name pinguifolia derives from the Latin pinguis meaning fat - the leaves being thick, because of a heavy, waxy cuticle.