Flora of New Zealand Series

Procumbent perennial arising from a stout stock, up to 10-(30) cm tall at flowering, stoloniferous; stems brownish green, slender and hairy. Lvs in rosettes, basal or at nodes, up to 150-(350) mm long, imparipinnate; leaflets in up to 7 pairs, with reduced leaflets between, elliptic to obovate or suborbicular, up to 20-(35) mm long, green above, silvery tomentose below, serrate. Fls axillary, solitary, 5-merous. Epicalyx segments ± obovate, ± = sepals, deeply toothed. Sepals tomentose. Petals orbicular, up to 10 mm long, yellow. Achenes smooth or very faintly rugose.

N.: widely distributed south of Auckland; S.: widely distributed, up to c. 1200 m; St.: Mason Bay area; Ch.

Endemic.

Wetlands, bogs, coastal sites and grassland.

Both Hooker (1864) and Cheeseman (1925) relegated P. anserinoides to varietal status under the widespread P. anserina L. as var. anserinoides (Raoul) Hook. f. However, Allan (1961) treated it at sp. rank with the comment that "The N.Z. sp. is perhaps endemic, but is very closely related to the widespread P. anserina". Rousi, A., Ann. Bot. Fenn. 2: 47-112 (1965), after detailed study of the P. anserina complex, concluded that P. anserinoides is a distinct entity distinguished as follows:

Unfortunately, N.Z. plants are more variable than indicated by this couplet: leaflets are often elliptic or obovate, are often distinctly serrate, and may be 2 cm or more long; the achenes are usually smooth but may have a small dorsal groove. However, Rousi's experiments suggest that the N.Z. sp. is reproductively isolated from other members of the complex and so P. anserinoides is accepted as distinct here. N.Z. plants have also been known as P. anserina var. maorica Th. Wolf..