Flora of New Zealand Series

stinkwort

Erect, strongly scented annual, up to c. 1 m tall. Stems moderately hairy and glandular, much-branched from base and above. Lower lvs moderately clothed in simple hairs and short glandular hairs, oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic-oblong, apetiolate and cuneate, acute to acuminate, entire or remotely denticulate, 20-80 × 2-10 mm; uppermost lvs smaller, broader based and becoming ± linear and entire. Capitula solitary, 4-10 mm diam. Outer involucral bracts mostly herbaceous, 3-4 mm long; inner bracts mostly membranous, 5-7 mm long. Ray florets c. 8-10; ligules yellow, 1-3 mm long, not exceeding involucre. Disc yellow, often turning red on drying. Achenes hairy, glandular toward apex, obovoid and slightly angled, c. 2 mm long; pappus minutely barbellate.

N.: Bay of Islands, Auckland City, and collected once from Taita (Wellington).

Mediterranean area to N.W. India 1975

Waste places, open pasture, locally common.

Stinkwort has been previously recorded in N.Z. as Inula graveolens.