Flora of New Zealand Series

Hooker's description is: "More or less glandular or glabrate. Rhizome short, simple or branched, as thick as a crow-quill. Leaves all radical, 1-2 in. long, petioled, spathulate, round at the tip, entire lobed or sub-pinnatifid, coriaceous, nerveless. Scape solitary or several, strict, 2-10 in. high, glandular; bract 0 or 1 or 2. Head 1/4-1 in. diam., yellow with white ray; involucral scales with or without a purple membranous jagged border; pappus minute, bristly or 0. Achene much compressed, narrow linear-obovoid, glandular or eglandular, margins thickened.

" Var. α. Leaves obtusely lobulate. Involucral scales with white or pale-purple edges. Achene glandular; pappus 0. Var. β. Leaves lobulate or entire. Involucral scales as in α. Achene glabrous; pappus evident. Var. γ. Smaller, alpine. Leaves quite entire. Scape short, stout, very glandular. Involucral scales with broad purple edges. Achene glabrous; pappus 0. Ray sometimes very long.

"Northern Island: not common; var. α, grassy places, east coast, Colenso. Middle Island: var. α and β, common in subalpine localities, Gordon's Nob, and top of Macrae's Run, Munro; shingle beds, Ahuriri, Mount Misery, alt. 2-4000 ft., and elsewhere in Southern Alps, Sinclair, Travers, Hector, and Haast; var. γ, Otago alps, alt. 6-7000 ft., Hector."

A still more ill-resolved complex than B. radicata, distinguished, inter alia, by the narrower distinctly compressed glab. achenes with few stout pappus-bristles. I have not been able to find any clear-cut differences between Hooker's vars α and β. Davis (loc. cit. 1949, 104, figs 9-24) illustrates "Leaf variation in B. Sinclairii", but the source of the material is not indicated; in that revision vegetative characters alone are not considered sufficient to warrant specific status. It is unfortunate that Simpson's types are still unlocated. The following arrangement is merely a suggestion.