Flora of New Zealand Series

Main stems slender, sparingly hairy, creeping and rooting; branches ascending. Lvs 4-5 cm. long, 11-13-foliolate. Stipules broad-ovate, c. 5 mm. long, entire or deeply 2-4-fid. Lflts ashy glaucescent on both surfaces, clad in dense appressed hairs above, pilose on veins below, teeth not penicillate. Upper lflts subsessile, up to 9 mm. long, dentate, teeth obtuse; terminal lflt with short petiolule. Scape c. 11 cm. long in flowering state. Heads 5-6 mm. diam. in flowering state. Cupules clad in spreading hairs. Sepals broad-lanceolate, obtuse, sparingly hairy below. Stamens 2, anthers purple. Stigma purple, plumose.

Bitter (loc. cit. 1911, 173, 246, 247) places the mainland spp. formerly treated as A. adscendens Vahl in his new spp. A. saccaticupula, A. fissistipula, A. hirsutula. For the latter he gives no distribution notes, but forms agreeing fairly well with his description occur in Marlborough and Canterbury. He describes 2 vars as below:

Var. hirticupula Bitter loc. cit. 1911, 246. "Planta caulibus gracilibus parce pilosis . . . folia maxima 4-5 cm. longa . . . vaginae in stipulas late ovatas . . . profunde 3-4-fidas exeuntes . . . cupula (in statu florente solo visa) in tota superficie sub-patenter hirtula . . ."

Var. glabricupula Bitter loc. cit. 1911, 247. "Specimen unicum a me visum una cum altera varietate (hirticupula) a cl. Cockayne editum habitu compactiore et pumiliore . . . folia 2.5-3 cm. longa, vaginae in stipulas lanceolatas simplices vel late ovatas trifidas 2.5-3·5 mm. longas exeuntes . . . cupula (in statu florente visa) in parte inferiore omnino glabra, in parte apicali praecipue inter aculeos et sepala pilosa . . ."

Type locality for both of Bitter's vars is given as "Trelissick Basin, Southern Alps 2100 ft.", both specimens collected by L. Cockayne. The status of these forms is uncertain.