Flora of New Zealand Series

Stoloniferous perennial; prostrate stems 2-4 mm diam., < 40 cm long; erect stems c. 2 mm diam., < 15 cm long. Lvs 2-8-(15) cm long; stipules entire or 2-3-fid; leaflets 11-17, obovate or oblong, 7-20 × 4-12 mm, 9-14-toothed, glabrous or sparsely hairy and green on upper surface, pilose and subglaucous on lower surface; teeth reddish purple. Scape 3-10 cm long at flowering, 11-21 cm long at fruiting, red, glabrous to pilose; capitulum c. 12 mm diam. at flowering, 1-3 cm diam. (including spines) at fruiting; florets c. 80-100; sepals 4-5; stamens 2-4-(5); anthers dark red; style 1, dark red; achene 1. Fr. obconic, c. 5 mm long, glabrous or pilose at apex; ribs dilated; spines 4, red, (1)-8 mm long, barbed; minute spines occasionally present between main ones.

M.

Also indigenous in southern S. America and Subantarctic Is.

Creek gravels, herbfield and fellfield.

FL Sep-Feb FT Nov-May.

This sp. was treated provisionally by Allan (1961) as A. adscendens M. Vahl. The broad sp. concept of A. magellanica accepted by Walton, D. W. H., British Antarctic Survey Bull. 49: 59-72 (1980), is followed here.