Flora of New Zealand Series

king devil

Stolons ± slender, with few to numerous long simple eglandular hairs. Rosette lvs glaucous, narrowly oblanceolate, rarely broadly oblanceolate or linear-oblanceolate, sessile or with a narrowly winged petiole, entire or very obscurely dentate, (1.5)-5-12-(20) × (0.5)-1-1.5-(3) cm, obtuse to acute, cuneate at base, with scattered coarse simple hairs 2-4 mm long above, at least near the margins, or rarely glabrous above, and coarse simple hairs 2-5 mm long confined to midrib and margins beneath; stellate hairs 0 or rarely a few on midrib beneath. Stem lvs 0-2, small. Flowering stems erect, (10)-15-45 cm tall, with sparse spreading simple eglandular hairs throughout, sparse to dense stellate hairs above, and sparse to numerous glandular hairs above. Peduncles 0.5-2 cm long at flowering. Capitula (5)-10-25-(35) per stem; involucre 6-8 mm long; bracts with few to numerous simple eglandular hairs, numerous glandular hairs and sparse to numerous stellate hairs. Florets yellow, usually without a red stripe on the outer face, 1.5-2× length of involucre. Achenes dark, c. 2 × 0.5 mm. Pappus sordid, 4-8 mm long.

N.: Volcanic Plateau (between Tokoroa and Taupo); S.: Nelson (Glenhope), Marlborough (Mt Richmond), Canterbury, Westland, Otago.

Europe 1924

Grassland, scrub, stony sites, waste land, roadsides, pasture, occasionally in wet sites.

Most N.Z. specimens, being stoloniferous and having numerous glandular hairs on the involucre, match  subsp. bauhinii (Besser) Petunnikov. Some specimens have more glandular than simple eglandular hairs on the involucre, matching subsp. praealtum. Plants of small stature with few capitula may key to P. lactucella (see Sell, P. D. and West, C., in Fl. Europ. 4 (1976)), but other distinguishing features are absent. The long setose hairs on the lf upper surfaces, especially near the margins, but confined to midrib and margins beneath, distinguish H. praealtum from other spp. H. praealtum is sometimes referred to in N.Z. as Pilosella praealta.

One specimen (CHR 386700, West Mathias River, Canterbury, Molloy, 23.1.1979) has stellate hairs beneath the lvs, and paired, long-peduncled capitula. It is probably H. pilosella × H. praealtum. A few specimens have the distinctive lf pubescence of H. praealtum, but have numerous long eglandular hairs on the involucre. These may be hybrids between H. caespitosum and H. praealtum.