Ranunculus haastii Hook.f.
Original localities: "shingle beds on Mount Torlesse and the Ribbon-wood range, alt. 4500-6000 ft." Type: K, Mount Torlesse, Haast.
Stout fleshy glab. glaucous herb up to ± 15 cm. tall; stock stout, ± 1 cm. diam., up to 15 cm. or more long, with milky juice; main roots long, thick. Radical lvs on petioles 5-15 cm. long, thickening upwards; sheaths us. villous. Lamina broad-reniform to suborbicular in outline, (3)-5-10 cm. diam., palmately divided to near base into 5-7 deeply, irregularly incised segs. Scape thick, producing 1-5 peduncles; cauline lvs divided into linear segs, ± surrounding fls. Fls 2-4 cm. diam.; sepals 5, oblong, glabrate; petals 5-15, narrow-cuneate, yellow; gland 1, basal. Fruiting heads globose, ± 2 cm. diam.; receptacle swollen, papillose. Achenes glab., turgid; styles flattened-subulate, widened towards base and continued as wings.
DIST.: S. Higher montane to subalpine screes from lat. 41° 30' to 45° 30'.
FL. 10-12. FT. 11-1.
Simpson and Thomson (N.Z. J. Sci. Tech. 8, 1926, 378) mention and give photographs of " Ranunculus Scott-Thomsonii sp. nov. (fl.), (fig. 3) ". Their specimens came from "rock slides" on the Rough Peaks range (north-western end of Eyre mountains, west of L. Wakatipu). Cockayne (Veg. N.Z. ed. 2, 1928, 452) lists the name R. Scott-Thomsonii Ckn. et Allan, and uses it in his text, but no description has been published. Fisher, who has studied the populations in the field and brought a number of plants into cultivation, informs me that he considers varietal rank under R. haastii the proper treatment.
Lamina ± orbicular in outline, 7-14 cm. diam., split to base or nearly so into 3 subreniform to orbicular segs, each again slightly to deeply incised; upper surface very sparsely, under us. rather densely, clad in silky hairs. Achenes sparsely hairy.
