Flora of New Zealand Series

Tufted perennial with usually fulvous hairs; rhizome 0; stem ascending, shortly decumbent at base, to 20-(35) cm tall. Lvs shallowly to deeply ternatifid, rarely ternate, hairy, 10-30-(50) × 10-30-(50) mm; lobes toothed or crenate, sometimes shallowly 3-lobed. Fls (1)-2-3-(10) per stem, usually pedunculate, sometimes sessile, (10)-15-20 mm diam., subtended by opposite or whorled cauline lvs. Pedicels terete, hairy, elongating at fruiting. Sepals spreading, hairy. Petals 5 or 0, yellow, obovate. Nectary single, 1 mm or more from petal base, covered by a small triangular or truncate scale. Receptacle hairy. Achenes 30-60 in globose heads, flattened, glabrous or with a few stiff hairs on back, 2.5-3.5-(4) mm long; beak rather broad, flattened, usually curved, 0.5-1 mm long.

N.: mountains except Egmont; S.: throughout; St.

Endemic.

Lowland to subalpine in open moist sites, especially forest margins, grassland and scrub.

R. foliosus is treated here in a broader sense than by Allan (1961). Forms with leafy ± erect stems to 35 cm tall, up to 10 fls per stem and petals present, occur in S. Nelson, Westland, Otago and Southland often in damp sites and bush margins. These correspond to R. porrectus Simpson. Alpine forms in N. and S. have almost sessile fls, thin lvs with rounded teeth, scapes elongating at fruiting, and are more often apetalous. These may come close to R. insertus which appears to be part of the R. foliosus complex. Throughout its range, particularly on limestone in parts of Nelson and Canterbury, lvs of R. foliosus may be distinctly 3-foliolate. Forms matching the type of R. foliosus are found in the Tararua Range, and throughout the South and Stewart Is. These have dense rosettes of hairy lvs ternatifid to c. 3/4 way with a narrowly rounded sinus between the lobes, ascending hairy flowering stems with (1)-3 fls subtended by opposite or subopposite cauline lvs, pale yellow petals > sepals, and globose heads of dark achenes.