Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Hopkins River. Type: K, Haast No. 83, Dec. 1863.

Tufted glab. to glabrate herb up to 15 dm. tall; stock very stout, main roots fleshy; main stems up to 2 cm. diam.; branches few to several, up to 3 dm. long. Radical lvs with petioles up to 30 cm. long, pilose at the broad sheathing bases; laminae simple, subcoriac., us. quite glab., peltate, 12-30 cm. diam., suborbicular; margins crenate, sts very shallowly lobed. Lower cauline lvs subsessile, up to 10 cm. diam.; mid smaller, sts deeply lobed, merging into bracts ± 1 cm. long, lanceolate to ovate, alt., entire to ± deeply toothed. Infl. paniculate; fls ∞, ± 5 cm. diam., on pedicels up to 20 cm. long. Sepals ± villous, obovate, 7 × 5 mm. long; petals white, c. 2.5 cm. long, obovate-oblong, rounded to emarginate at apex; nectary gland very small, basal. Fruiting heads 1-3 cm. long; receptacle cylindric, pilose. Achenes pale, ± villous, obliquely obovoid, turgid, c. 3 × 1 mm.; style slender, c. 3 mm. long.

DIST.: S., St. Montane to subalpine herbfield and creek sides from lat. 41° southwards.

FL. 10-1, FT. 11-3.

Var. araneosa Hook. f. Handbk N.Z. Fl. 1867, 722. Plant sparingly clad in scattered white flaccid hairs. Type: K, Otago, Hector and Buchanan, 1864-5. The type specimen still shows the hairs distinctly.

 Var. traversii (Hook. f.) Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 1906, 9. R. traversii Hook. f. Handbk N.Z. Fl. 1864, 4. Hooker's description is: "Very similar to R. lyallii, but smaller, the leaves 6-7 in. diam. and broadly twice or thrice crenate with deeper notches, and with two incisions near the base. Flowers cream-coloured. Middle Island: moist gullies in Wurumui [Hurunui] mountains, Travers." The type specimen at K has 2 basal lvs (8·5 and 11 cm. diam.) coarsely crenate, the incisions c. 1·5 cm. deep; cauline lf. c. 4·5 cm. diam., lobes up to 1 cm. deep; bracts up to 2.5 × 1·5 cm., rather sharply toothed. Fls in poor order; petals c. 2 cm. long, emarginate; achenes (immature) pilose; heads c. 1 cm. long, pedicels pilose. Similar forms are occ. met with, and are probably of hybrid origin.