Flora of New Zealand Series

Prostrate, ascending or erect, glabrous or almost glabrous perennial herb, often woody toward base. Lvs petiolate or apetiolate and sometimes amplexicaul, oblanceolate, narrow-elliptic, narrow-ovate or oblong, not lobed and sinuate- dentate or serrate, or pinnately lobed to pinnatifid or lyrate-pinnatifid with narrow to oblong, entire or few-toothed segments, 20-80-(90) × (4)-12-25- (30) mm; primary segments, lobes or teeth (4)-5-9-(11) on each side. Uppermost lvs smaller, usually broader at base and amplexicaul, with few teeth or divisions, or sometimes entire. Supplementary bracts 4-10, (1)-2-3- (6) mm long. Involucral bracts (10)-12-16-(21), 4-6.5-(7.5) mm long. Ray florets 0 ( subsp. discoideus) or 8-15; ligules bright yellow, (1)-2-7-(8) mm long. Disc dull yellow, 4-9 mm diam. Achenes usually sparsely to densely hairy between ribs, rarely ± evenly hairy, slightly narrowed to apex, 2.5-3.5 mm long.

N.: montane to alpine C. and S. ranges [ subsp. discoideus (Cheeseman) Ornd. and subsp. toa C. Webb ( subsp. raoulii sensu Ornduff)]; S.: montane to alpine Nelson, mostly in limestone ( subsp. glaucophyllus), lowland to montane Marlborough and N. Canterbury ( subsp. toa), montane to subalpine E. areas, mainly in stony ground ( subsp. discoideus), Banks Peninsula and coastal Canterbury and Otago ( subsp. basinudus Ornd.).

Endemic.

FL Oct-Apr.

S. glaucophyllus is distinguished from S. lautus, within which some of its forms have at times been included, by the perennial habit, the generally more numerous and regular lf teeth or divisions, and the chromosome number (2 n = 100).

Because the S. glaucophyllus complex is still unresolved a key to subspp. is not provided. The sp. is very variable with distinctive geographic forms; Ornduff (op. cit.) recognised 4 subspp., and specimens from most areas can be readily referred to these. However, material from N.E. South Id, particularly coastal areas between Blenheim and Kaikoura, is difficult to place; it may be necessary to recognise new infraspecific taxa for this area. On the Volcanic Plateau (C. North Id) discoid plants grow sympatrically with the rayed subsp. toa; these plants need to be more critically compared with South Id material of subsp. discoideus before their status can be determined, but it will probably be necessary to recognise more than one sp. within the S. glaucophyllus complex. The situation is further confused by the occasional occurrence of shortly-rayed plants of subsp. discoideus and rayless variants of the other subspp. Ali (1964, op. cit.) suggested that differentiation among the entities recognised by Ornduff as subspp. has not reached a sufficient level to warrant taxonomic distinction; although difficulties remain within this complex sp., Ali's views, based as they were on an examination of only limited herbarium material, cannot be accepted.