Flora of New Zealand Series

Robust, tufted perennial, (10)-20-35 cm tall; rhizome 0. Stems decumbent or ascending, with spreading hairs. Basal lvs pale green, ternatifid to ternate, hairy; leaflets sessile or stalked, obovate-cuneate, 3-lobed, bluntly to sharply toothed; petioles (3)-5-10 cm long, with dense, fine, spreading hairs. Cauline lvs similar to basal but smaller, becoming simple and sharply 3-toothed. Fls 3-5 per stem, 12-18 mm diam. Pedicels sulcate, with spreading hairs, short at flowering, increasing at fruiting to 3-10 cm long; bracts narrowly lanceolate, acute, entire. Sepals recurved at late flowering, hairy. Petals 5, yellow, usually elliptic, rarely obovate; nectary single, 0.8-1 mm from petal base, covered by a short broad scale. Receptacle hairy. Achenes dark or dark at tips, 40-60, in globose heads, flattened, glabrous or bearing 1 or a few bristles on margin; body 2-2.5-(3.5) mm long; beak hooked at tip, 1-1.3 mm long.

S.: Nelson mountains, Canterbury and Westland near the Main Divide.

Endemic.

Open places and on landslides, in montane and subalpine forest, tussock and scrub.

R. altus differs from R. foliosus in its small petals with a broad nectary lobe very near the base, reflexed sepals, sulcate pedicels, and alternate cauline lvs. It differs from large forms of R. reflexus in its larger, darker, sometimes sparsely bristly achenes in globose heads, its ternate to ternatifid lvs and its stout decumbent habit.