Flora of New Zealand Series

Psychrophyton grandiflorum Beauverd loc. cit. 1910, 232, f. 13.

Type locality: "Top of Ruahine Range". Type: K, Colenso.

Stems woody at base, much-branched; branches and branchlets densely to rather loosely arranged, the plant forming cushions or mats up to c. 15 cm. diam., occ. of more open habit. Lvs densely imbricate, 5-10 × 1-2 mm., 3-nerved, ovate-lanceolate-spathulate, tapering to subacute tip, clad in upper part on both surfaces in appressed silvery tomentum, loosely tomentose near base. Capitula up to 1·5 cm. diam.; inner phyll. linear, contracted near middle, obtuse, with conspicuous white radiate tips up to c. 5 mm. long. Florets 25-45; ♀ 8-15 with narrow slender corolla, perfect with funnelform corolla. Stylopodium prominent. Achenes < 1 mm. long, clad in silky hairs; pappus-hairs c. 5 mm. long, stiff, slightly thickened at tips.

DIST.: N., S. Upper montane to alpine rocks and fellfield from lat. 38° southwards.

Var. fasciculata (Buchan.) Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 974. Gnaphalium (Helichrysum) fasciculatum Buchan. in T.N.Z.I. 9, 1877, 529, t. 19. The status is uncertain. Buchanan says: "Heads, 1-4 flowered on each branch, forming a sessile closely compacted fascicle". The lvs are slightly broader than in the common form. Zotov et al. (T.R.S.N.Z. 68, 1939, 309) list it without comment. Dist.: N. Tararua Range. Type: W, H. H. Travers.