Flora of New Zealand Series

Stoloniferous perennial; prostrate stems 1-1.5 mm diam., < 1 m long; erect stems 1-1.5 mm diam., < 15 cm long (or longer if scrambling on supporting vegetation). Lvs 1-7.5 cm long; stipules 3-8-fid; leaflets 9-13, oblong, 4-17 × 2-9 mm, 7-15-toothed to base, dull green and sparsely or densely hairy on upper surface, paler, glaucescent and silky hairy on lower surface; basal leaflets usually suffused with brown; teeth penicillate. Scape 4-12 cm long, pilose; capitulum 5-8 mm diam. at flowering, 1-2 cm diam. (including spines) at fruiting; florets c. 50-60; sepals 4; stamens 2; anthers white or rose; style 1, white; achene 1. Fr. obconic, c. 3 × 1.2 mm, hairy; spines 4, pale brown, 4-9 mm long, barbed.

N.; S.; St.; Ch.; A., C.

Endemic.

Lowland to lower subalpine forest margin and shrubland throughout.

FL Oct-Jan FT Dec-Apr.

A. anserinifolia is a variable sp. including several recognisable forms. A. pusilla (Bitter) Allan and its var. suprasericascens Bitter (with lvs not exceeding 3.5 cm long, basal leaflets and stipules brown, and fruiting capitula 7 mm diam.), and A. viridior (Cockayne) Allan (with clear green lvs, never brown, sepals pale green, and spines yellow-green), which were accorded specific rank by Allan (1961), are here considered to be part of an as yet unresolved complex. Subalpine plants and lowland plants of Fiordland and Stewart Id have leaflets silky on both surfaces and anthers may be rose. Allan (1961) made the combinations A. anserinifolia var. sericeinitens (Bitter) Allan, and A. anserinifolia var. paucidens (Bitter) Allan to accommodate plants with dense hairs on the upper surfaces of leaflets, and plants with obovate-oblong leaflets with < 9 teeth. The type specimens for these names belong to A. profundeincisa [Macmillan, B. H., New Zealand J. Bot. 21: 347-352 (1983)].

Two entities currently included in A. anserinifolia deserve taxonomic recognition at sp. rank (Macmillan, B. H., New Zealand J. Bot., in press). They both have the distal 3-5 leaflets obovate and larger than the lower leaflets, and stipules usually entire. One occurs in the C. North Id, and the other in the E. North Id south of 39 ° 30', the E. South Id and possibly Stewart Id.

A. anserinifolia is naturalised on A. and C. where it hybridises with A. minor var. antarctica. Hybrids between A. anserinifolia and A. novae-zelandiae are common. Forest clearance and the increase in dispersal agents since European settlement have merged the habitats of these 2 spp. in lowland areas. A detailed study of hybridism in the vicinity of Wellington was made by Dawson, J. W., Trans. Roy. Soc. N.Z. 88: 13-27 (1960).