Flora of New Zealand Series

Perennial; rosettes tufted on arching hairy stolons. Basal lvs 3-foliolate or rarely 3-lobed, hairy; leaflets shortly stalked, suborbicular to obovate, shallowly 3-lobed, often sparingly toothed, 1-2-(3) cm diam. Cauline lvs similar, smaller, often merely 3-lobed. Fls on ascending, hairy stems or axillary on stolons, few per stem, 4-8 mm diam. Pedicels terete, 2-6 cm long, hairy; hairs usually spreading, rarely subappressed above. Sepals reflexed at flowering, hairy. Petals 5, yellow, narrow-obovate; nectary single, c. 0.5 mm from petal base, covered by a small oblong or triangular scale. Receptacle hairy. Achenes 20-40 in globose heads, pale, moderately flattened, glabrous; body 1.5-2 mm long; beak straight, or curved only at tip, 0.5-1 mm long.

N.: Mt Egmont, Kaimanawa Range, Ruahine Range, Tararua Range, Rimutaka Range; S.: Nelson, Westland, Fiordland, occasionally W. parts of Marlborough, Canterbury, and Otago.

Endemic.

Damp places in forest and scrub, up to 1400 m.

R. membranifolius is most similar to R. reflexus, from which it differs in its slender stoloniferous habit, shorter pedicels often with patent hairs, smaller fls and fewer, darker, and broader achenes with straighter beaks. Although the 2 spp. often grow together, R. membranifolius is commonest in areas west of the Main Divide in both islands and is not known north of about Taupo.