Cotula lanata (Hook.f.) Hook.f.
Leptinella lanata Hook. f. Fl. Antarct. 1, 1844, 25, t. 19.
Type locality: Auckland Is. Type: K, J. D. Hooker no: 1447.
Stems stout, decumbent, woody, ascending at tips, up to 3 dm. long; branches rather distant, clad for some time in lf-bases, ± densely clad in white woolly subappressed hairs (occ. only sparsely hairy). Lvs crowded towards tips of branches and branchlets. Lamina 20-25-(75) × 6-10 mm., on stout sheathing bases; oblong in outline to obovate-oblong, pinnate to pinnatifid with broad flat costa, rather thick, minutely glandular, clad in dense to sparse woolly hairs; segs with ascending teeth on upper or both margins. Primary pinnae when developed close-set, curved. Scape terminal, stout, < lvs, pilose, especially near capitulum. Bracts us. several, close-set in lower part of scape, broadly subulate; narrower and more distant in upper part. Capitula (5)-7-10 mm. (occ. larger); receptacle convex. Phyll. in several series, broad-oblong to broad-ovate, 2-3 mm. long, pale green, obtuse, ± chartaceous, ± pilose. Florets glandular; ♀ ovoid-oblong, minutely 4-toothed; ♂ us. ∞, narrow-funnelform, 5-toothed. Achenes 2-3 mm. long, obovoid-compressed, slightly curved, glandular, subtetragonous.
DIST.: A., C. Rocky places.
A somewhat polymorphic sp. probably hybridising with C. plumosa. Under C. lanata (Handbk N.Z. Fl. 1864, 142) Hooker says: "The Leptinella propinqua, Hook. f., of Campbell's Island [Fl. Antarct. 1, 1844, 27], is a broader-leaved variety of this species." The sheet at K. labelled "C. propinqua Lord Auckland Group Coll. Bolton 1850" has 3 pieces, one unlike the other two. On same sheet are two pieces, "Lord Auckland's Group,. J.D.H." These are nearer C. plumosa. Another sheet has 3 poor pieces of Hooker's collecting. Cheeseman (Subantarct. Is N.Z. 2, 1909, 416) says: "I have seen no specimens of C. propinqua . . . it appears to differ from both species in several important points, and quite possibly should be restored to specific rank." Sorensen (D.S.I.R. Cape Exped. Ser. Bull. 7, '1951) does not refer to it.
