Flora of New Zealand Series

Perennial herb with napiform taproot c. 3 cm diam.; caulorrhiza short, bearing a number of flowering stems. Hairs variable, the longer mostly curved or bent near base. Basal lvs with petioles to c. 25 cm long with retrorse hairs. Lamina to 5 cm diam., suborbicular to orbicular, lobed to c. ⅞ way to midrib; lobes 5-7, linear, inconspicuously but uniformly hairy on both sides; larger lobes usually with 7 or 9 teeth; median and larger lateral teeth usually oblong, occasionally obovate to clavate, obtuse, subacute or mucronate. Cauline lvs smaller, with fewer lobes. Flowering stems with dense retrorse hairs or occasionally glabrescent; bracteoles linear to narrowly triangular; fls usually in pairs, occasionally solitary. Sepals c. 5 × 3 mm excluding awn, ovate or elliptic-ovate; awn to 1 mm long; hairs mostly short, appressed, longer on margins. Petals c. 6 × 4 mm, obovate, white to pink. Mericarps hairy; beak to 14 mm long. Seed c. 2 × 1.4 mm, oblong, dark; dorsal alveolae usually deep, 4-6-sided, ± isodiametric.

N.; S.

Also indigenous to temperate Australia.

Widely distributed in open habitats, especially in lowland grassland and scrub, on cliffs, often in modified communities of herbs.

FL Oct-Apr.

Gardner, R. O., New Zealand J. Bot. 22: 130-131 (1984), suggested that G. retrorsum is in part introduced in N.Z., because it has weedy tendencies and the same variation in lf dissection and fl. colour as exists in Australia. This evidence is considered insufficient to separate out and describe a naturalised element here. Plants treated here as G. retrorsum were treated by Allan (1961) within his concept of G. pilosum.