Aciphylla simplex Petrie
Type locality: Mount Cardrona c. 6000 ft. Type: W, 2123, D. Petrie. No. 497 at K appears to be from the same gathering.
Stock us. multicipital, each branch bearing a dense rosette of lvs, the whole plant forming cushionlike masses up to 6 dm. diam. and 10 cm. tall. Lvs simple, sessile on submembr. sheaths up to ± 4 cm. × 10 mm. Lamina straight or curved, exstipulate, concavo-convex, 3-10 cm. long, tapering to blunt but mucronulate apex; hard, rigid. with thickened margins. Stems stout, grooved, up to c. 10 cm. × 5 mm.; infl. a ± globose panicle, with oblong-lanceolate, acute bracts up to 2.5 cm. long. Umbels few, densely fld, forming an infl. up to c. 5 cm. diam., on peduncles 10-25 mm. long. Umbellules globose, up to c. 15 mm. diam; rays very slender, short. Umbellules of female plants up to c. 3 cm. diam.
Dist.: S. Montane to subalpine central and western Otago, from lat. 45º to 46º.
