Flora of New Zealand Series

Main stems rather slender, creeping and rooting, up to 5 dm. long; branchlets ascending, c. 5 cm. long. Lvs 9-15-foliolate, 2.5-5 cm. long; stipules linear-lanceolate, with up to 3 teeth; lflts pale olive-green above, glab., somewhat glaucous below, pilose on veins, and teeth penicillate; upper lflts c. 5 mm. long, suborbicular, sessile, serrate-dentate; terminal lflt broader, with petiolule up to 5 mm. long. Scapes 2-3 cm. long, ± pilose, bracts minute. Heads c. 1·5 cm. diam. including spines; bractlets linear. Cupules c. 1-1·5 mm. long, broadly turbinate, ± pilose, angles thickened. Spines purplish red, fading to brownish or yellowish green, c. 5 mm. long. Sepals ovate, subacute. Stamens 2, anthers white; achenes 2.

DIST.: S. Riverbed, Waipara R., North Canterbury; stream beds and low tussock-grassland, lower slopes of Mount Hutt, South Canterbury. Bitter had seen only garden plants, raised from seed of a plant in the Dahlem Botanic Garden, of uncertain provenance. The wild plants agree in essentials with his description.