Geum pusillum Petrie
(C.J.W., D.R.G.)
Low-growing herb up to 3-(10) cm high at flowering, arising from slender stock. Basal lvs up to 25-(45) mm long, sparsely to moderately white-pilose, imparipinnate; lateral leaflets in up to 5-(7) pairs, small; terminal leaflet 3-10 mm long, crenate-dentate and sometimes obscurely 3-5-lobed; cauline lvs 1-2, reduced to minute bracts. Peduncle short. Fls mostly solitary, very rarely 2 per infl. Petals c. 1.5 mm long, white. Achenes glabrous.
S.: Otago (Old Man Range, Garvie Mountains).
Endemic.
Snow banks and flushes above 1500 m.
FL Nov-Feb FT Feb.
G. pusillum is very similar to reduced forms of G. leiospermum which occasionally have solitary fls, but differs from them in that the pubescent peduncle lacks the intermixed long hairs usually found in G. leiospermum and in the lateral leaflets which are usually not as reduced in relation to the terminal leaflet.
