Flora of New Zealand Series

purple fuzzweed

Much-branched, erect or spreading perennial herb or subshrub, (10)-15-30 cm tall. Stems white-lanate, becoming glabrous and distinctly woody towards base. Lvs all cauline in mature plants, narrow-obovate to narrowly linear- oblanceolate, apetiolate and cuneate, obtuse to emarginate, mostly entire, sometimes with 1-(3) pairs of shallow lobes near apex, often folded upwards, sparsely hairy and glandular on upper surface, moderately lanate and glandular on lower, 6-20-(30) × 1-4-(6) mm; uppermost lvs smaller, narrower and always entire. Capitula c. 10 mm diam. Inner involucral bracts linear, sparsely hairy, 5-9 mm long; outer bracts moderately lanate and glandular, from c. 1 mm long. Ray florets 13-numerous; ligules bluish to pinkish purple, 2-5 mm long. Disc yellow. Achenes oblanceolate, with ribbed margins and 5-7 ribs on each face, sparsely to moderately hairy on faces and margins, glandular and with longer appressed hairs obscuring base, 4-5.5 mm long; pappus 6-6.5 mm long.

N.: Pukerua Bay, Paekakariki, and Turanganui R. (Wellington Province); S.: Beckenham (N. Canterbury), Banks Peninsula and vicinity of Lake Ellesmere, Otago (especially N. and C.), Southland.

Australia 1899

Dry hill slopes and depleted pasture, rock outcrops, coastal sites and waste places.

FL Oct-Apr.

This sp. has usually been confused in N.Z. with the other commonly naturalised sp., V. cuneata, and has, therefore, usually been recorded as V. triloba, but also as V. scabra, and V. australis var. erecta. Healy, A. J., Trans. Roy. Soc. N.Z. 74 : 225 (1944), correctly distinguished this entity as V. triloba var. lanuginosa J. Black. The 2 spp. are easily distinguished by the stem hairs (Fig. 20). Williams, P. A., New Zealand J. Ecol. 3 : 13-22 (1980), provided information on the ecology of Otago populations of V. gracilis.