Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Upper Awatere near Molesworth Station. Type: W, 2709A, D. Petrie, Mid Feby 1922.

Main stems stout, woody, up to 1 m. or more long, creeping and rooting, often subterranean; branchlets ascending, up to 1 dm. long. Lvs up to 7 cm. long, 11-17-foliolate; upper lflts up to 7 mm. long, crenate, glab. above or nearly so, pilose on veins below, us. with tuft of hairs at tips of teeth, suborbicular, subsessile; terminal lflt c. 5 × 7 mm., with petiolule c. 3-5 mm. long. Scapes c. 3 cm. long, glab. to pilose, with or without minute bracts. Heads up to 3·5 cm. diam., including spines; bractlets linear, two-toothed at apex. Cupules 2-3 mm. long, turbinate, glab. to pilose, angles thickened. Spines c. 1 cm. long, crimson to brownish red, unarmed. Sepals ovate, dull green. Stamens 2, anthers white to creamy. Styles 2, fimbriate on one side. Achenes 2, seldom 1 only developed.

DIST.: S. Riverbeds, fans, tussock-grassland, especially in montane areas east of divide.

Bitter, in Bibl. bot., Stuttgart 74, 1911, 286, 288, recognizes two subspp. of A. microphylla : (a) subsp. eumicrophylla : "Planta robustior ceteris varietatibus . . . foliola rubescenti-glauca"; (b) subsp. obscurascens : "foliola . . . supra obscura, nigripurpurascentia vel subolivacea, subtus glaucescentia venis marginibusque purpurei-suffusis". The latter is based on plants of uncertain origin. The status of the many colour forms found in the field is not yet sufficiently worked out to justify any detailed subdivision. Bitter's  var. pallideolivacea, loc. cit. 287, based on garden material, can be matched in the field, appears constant, and is here accepted.