Flora of New Zealand Series

cineraria

Erect perennial herb, up to c. 1 m tall. Stems sparsely hairy to almost glabrous, branched above to form infl. Basal lvs sparsely to moderately hairy or densely lanate on lower surface, glabrous on upper; petiole = or > lamina; lamina orbicular to broad-ovate, cordate, shallowly lobed and dentate, 7-20 cm diam.; venation palmate. Cauline lvs smaller, shortly petiolate or finally sessile and amplexicaul, from ovate and lobed to triangular or lanceolate and simply serrate or entire. Infl. usually a ± flat-topped panicle. Supplementary bracts 0-(3), linear, 1-4 mm long. Involucral bracts 13-14, oblong, 3.5-5.5 mm long. Ray florets 9-14; ligules shades of pink, red, blue or purple, (6)-8-20 mm long. Disc red, blue, purple or yellow. Achenes ellipsoid-subcylindric, 0.9-1.2 mm long, those of ray florets glabrous and lacking a pappus, those of disc florets with very short antrorse hairs between ribs and with a denticulate pappus.

N.: locally common in Auckland City, vicinity of Wellington; S.: Nelson City, Gore Bay (N. Canterbury), Otago Peninsula.

Cultivated hybrid 1980

Waste places and under trees.

FL Oct-Dec.

A wide range of cvs of cineraria are grown; these vary in stature and infl. form as well as in the colours of the capitula. The disc may be the same colour as the ligules or a contrasting white or pale yellow and the ligule may be bicoloured with the inner portion white - all colour forms can be expected among wild plants.

Although cinerarias are of relatively recent introduction into cultivation (c. 1780) their exact origin remains obscure. They are most probably selections from hybrids involving the Macaronesian spp. P. cruenta (L'Hér.) Bolle and P. lanata (L'Hér.) R. Nordenstam, and possibly several other spp. The cultivated plant is now very different from any wild sp., and so Nordenstam has proposed the name P. × hybrida for it. The history of the development of cinerarias is outlined by Barkley, T. M., Econ. Bot. 20 : 386-395 (1966). This hybrid has been previously known in N.Z. as Senecio cruentus.