Flora of New Zealand Series

Biennial to perennial. Stem erect, branched above, grooved, 30-80 cm tall, with sparse to dense spreading bristly hairs each bearing 2 recurved barbs at apex. Lvs with spreading bristles, each bristle with 2 recurved barbs at apex. Basal lvs linear-oblanceolate, subentire to bluntly dentate, acute or subacute, 5-15 × 0.5-2 cm, tapered to short narrowly winged petiole. Stem lvs similar, the uppermost sessile, linear, subauriculate. Capitula numerous. Involucre 8-11 mm long; outer bracts linear-lanceolate, narrowly acute at apex, with short crisped hairs, bristly on midrib, c. ⅔ length of inner bracts; inner bracts similar. Corolla yellow, c. 11/2× length of involucre. Achenes fusiform, transversely wrinkled, red-brown, glabrous; body 3.5-5.5 mm long; beak very short or 0. Pappus dirty white, 2-rowed, the outer ciliolate, the inner plumose.

N.: Northland, Bay of Plenty (Rotoehu State Forest); S.: Southland (Lake Manapouri).

Also indigenous to most other temperate regions.

Scrub, roadsides, coastal cliffs, grassland.

P. hieracioides var. glabrata Hook. f., accepted by Allan (1961), does not seem sufficiently distinct to merit recognition.