Flora of New Zealand Series

Eyre Mountains buttercup

Tufted perennial, 2-5 cm tall; rhizome stout. Lvs broadly ovate, deeply 2-3-ternatisect, covered with silky hairs; ultimate lobes linear, subacute. Scapes 1-flowered, erect, with silky hairs. Fls 2-3 cm diam. Sepals spreading, with silky hairs. Petals 12-15, lemon yellow, linear-oblong; nectary solitary, c. 6 mm from petal base, annular. Receptacle glabrous. Achenes many, turgid, with sparse silky hairs; body 2-2.5 mm long; beak straight, 3-3.5 mm long.

S.: Southland (Eyre Mountains).

Endemic.

Stable fine clay in screes, 1100-1900 m.

R. scrithalis grows almost submerged in scree, with only the tips of the lvs and the fls and frs showing at the soil surface. The sp. is illustrated in Mark, A. F. and Adams, N. M., New Zealand Alpine Plants (1973).