Flora of New Zealand Series

strawflower

Erect annual herb, 20-60-(200) cm tall. Stems usually viscid and sparsely tomentose and becoming glabrous below, sometimes almost glabrous above, branched above to form infl. Lvs spreading, distant, sparsely hispidulous and glandular, especially on lower surface, ciliolate, apetiolate, oblanceolate, narrow- elliptic, or lanceolate, acute and mucronate, cuneate and amplexicaul, entire, 35-100-(150) × 5-15-(25) mm. Uppermost lvs much smaller, finally lanceolate or linear. Capitula 25-50 mm diam., c. 1-5 in corymbs. Involucral bracts in c. 7-15 rows, membranous, glabrous, radiating, bright yellow, gold, orange or white to red; middle bracts opaque, ovate, mucronate, c. 10-15 mm long; outer bracts much shorter, broad, less brightly coloured; inner bracts shorter, narrower, often paler or partly transparent. Disc yellow. Achenes glabrous, cylindric, pale brown and darker flecked, 2-2.5 mm long; pappus barbellate, slightly fused at base.

N.: Auckland City, Gisborne Province, Taita (Wellington); S.: lowland Nelson and Canterbury.

Australia 1940

Waste places, cemeteries, scrubland, forest margins.

FL Nov-Apr.

H. bracteatum is widely cultivated for the long-lasting brightly coloured heads; it occurs in the wild mostly as a casual, but is well established locally in Nelson.