Flora of New Zealand Series

Stoloniferous perennial with much-branched stems terminating in leafy rosettes and usually forming mats, 2-4 cm tall. Lvs mostly in basal rosettes; basal lvs slightly narrowed to broad sheathing petiole, densely sericeous on both surfaces including mid-vein but not petiole, keeled toward apex, narrow-oblong to spathulate, obtuse, (5)-8-12 × 2-4 mm; cauline lvs 1-2, narrow. Capitula c. 5-8 mm diam., solitary; subtending lvs < capitula; scape terminal, simple, erect, amongst lvs at flowering, elongating only to just above lvs at fruiting. Involucral bracts narrowly elliptic-oblong, subacute, 7-7.5 mm long; stereome yellow-green; lamina very pale brown, sometimes darker at base; gap and margins clear to mid-brown. Achenes glabrous, 1-1.2 mm long.

S.: known from 2 areas only, vicinity of Island Pass in the upper Wairau and Clarence Valleys, and Mt Misery and Betwixt (Cass, inland Canterbury).

Also indigenous to Victoria, and Mt Kosciusko, Australia.

Tussock grassland, herbfield, scree.

G. nitidulum is easily distinguished from the only other mat-forming sp. with solitary terminal heads, G. mackayi, by the lf hairs which are ± straight, antrorse, appressed and glossy rather than forming a white, tangled tomentum.