Flora of New Zealand Series

Erect or spreading herb up to 6dm. or more tall; branches and branchlets angled. Lvs on petioles up to c. 3 cm. long; lamina simple, 2-5 cm. long, about ovate-lanceolate, thin, acute to acuminate, serrate. Sts some or all lvs are pinnately cut into 3-5 segs. Capitula up to ± 15 mm. diam., on long slender peduncles. Phyll. ± 6·5 mm. long. Ray-florets few, short, or 0. Achenes almost black, 4-angled, striate, c. 4-5 mm. long; bristles us. 4, up to c. 2 mm. long.

DIST.: K., N. Lowland fields, waste ground, swampy and boggy places.

FL.- FT. 11-6. Accepted by Oliver (T.N.Z.I. 42, 1910, 172).

Very probably not indigenous except perhaps in Kermadec Is. There are several naturalised spp. in N., of which B. aurantiacus Col. in T.N.Z.I. 27, 1895, 388 may be one. His specimens were collected in "Woods at Te Kawakawa, near East Cape; 1894: Mr. H. Hill." Part of the description is: "Pappus, three stout erect barbed awns 11/2 lines long, bright-yellow . . . Achene 21/2 lines long . . . bright-yellow".