Flora of New Zealand Series

creeping cudweed

Stoloniferous perennial; stems 1-2-(5), decumbent or ascending, simple, 2-10-(15) cm tall. Lvs basal and cauline or mostly basal; basal lvs usually long-petiolate, plane, densely white-tomentose on lower surface except mid-vein, almost glabrous to moderately tomentose on upper, elliptic-oblanceolate to oblanceolate, cuneate, acute, sometimes mucronate, 10-30-(45) × 2-4 mm; cauline lvs not or slightly reduced upwards, becoming lanceolate, oblong or ± linear and apetiolate. Capitula 1-2 mm diam., (1)-2-5-(8) in dense terminal clusters; longest subtending lvs = or < diam. of cluster. Involucral bracts elliptic-oblong or oblong, obtuse, (3)-3.5-4 mm long; stereome usually green, sometimes tinged reddish purple toward apex; lamina pale brown, with darker markings toward base; gap and margins tinged pale to bright reddish purple. Achenes minutely papillate, 0.7-0.8 mm long.

N.; S.; St.: scattered lowland to subalpine localities throughout.

Possibly also indigenous to Australia.

Mostly damp sites in herbfield, grassland and scrubland, also forest, waste places and pasture.

G. delicatum can be distinguished from depauperate plants of G. audax by the more slender long-petiolate basal lvs, usually by the less hairy upper lf surface, and often by the more numerous ⚥ florets. Plants treated by Drury (1972, op. cit.) as G. delicatum had previously been known in N.Z. as G. collinum and G. collinum var. obscurum.