Celmisia discolor Hook.f.
Type locality: "Nelson on the mountains". Type: K, No. 37 Bidwill.
Stems rather stout, woody, prostrate to sprawling; branches clad in lf-remains; lvs closely imbricate, living ones forming ± crowded rosulate tufts--a single plant may extend to c. 1 m. diam. Lamina coriac., spreading, 2-4 cm. × 8-12 mm., oblong to obovate-oblong to ± spathulate, obtuse or subacute, ± cuneately narrowed to base; upper surface clad in soft appressed hairs or thin pellicle (type described as glab., some forms ± viscid); lower surface clad in very dense appressed white satiny tomentum; margins distantly denticulate; petiole 0 or flat, up to c. 5 mm. long. Sheath subcoriac., glab. to sparsely hairy, c. 15 mm. long. Scape ± 10-15 cm. long, slender, glandular-pubescent, often clad in white tomentum; bracts linear-subulate, up to 2 cm. long, indumentum as in lvs. Capitula 2-3 cm. diam.; phyll. linear-subulate, acute to acuminate, up to ± 10 mm. long, clad without in dense white sub-floccose tomentum, ± glab. within, midrib evident. Ray-florets c. 12 mm. long, limb narrow-oblong; disk-florets ± 6 mm. long, tubular-funnelform, teeth minute. Achenes slender, cylindric, c. 3 mm. long, rather densely clad in short stiff ascending hairs. Pappus-hairs white, up to c. 5 mm. long, very minutely barbellate.
DIST.: S. Montane to subalpine grassland, fellfield, rocky places, throughout.
A polymorphic sp. closely related to C. incana, the constituent forms not yet satisfactorily resolved. There is a considerable range of lf-size.
