Ranunculus haastii Hook.f.
Tufted perennial, 5-15 cm tall; rhizome stout, creeping. Lvs few, orbicular or reniform, deeply 5-lobed or ternatisect, fleshy, glaucous, 10-25-(35) cm long, glabrous or with silky hairs; lobes either again deeply divided into narrow segments, or rounded and crenate. Fls 1-3-(5) per stem, 2-5 cm diam. Pedicels erect, glabrous. Sepals spreading, glabrous or sparsely hairy. Petals 10-16, yellow, narrow-cuneate; nectary single, 2-4 mm from petal base, naked. Receptacle glabrous. Achenes many, turgid, winged on margins, glabrous; body 3-4 mm long; beak broad, flattened, curved, 3-4 mm long.
S.: Marlborough, Canterbury, Otago, Southland ( subsp. haastii); Otago (Rough Peaks Range, subsp. piliferus F. Fisher).
Endemic.
Unstable shingle slides and screes, 1000-2000 m.
Fisher (1965, op. cit.) gives fuller descriptions and illustrations.
