Flora of New Zealand Series

Capitula heterogamous, discoid, solitary, sessile or subsessile, terminal. Phyll. scarious to membr., with or without radiate, us. white, tips. Receptacle small, alveolate, nude. Outer florets pistillate, filiform, 2-5-toothed; disk-florets perfect or sts sterile, tubular, 5-toothed. Anthers sagittate at base, cells produced into fine tails. Style-arms of disk-florets truncate and papillate. Achenes ± oblong, glab. to pubescent or setose to papillose. Pappus-hairs: (a) in several series, 50-150; or (b) 15-25 in 1 series. Low-growing tufted or creeping and rooting herbs or subshrubs, often forming cushions or mats, with small, us. crowded lvs. Besides the N.Z. spp., all endemic, a few have been described from New Guinea.

SYNOPSIS

• A. Subgenus RAOULIA. 
• • Pappus-hairs 50-150, slender, not flattened, not or hardly thickened at tips, not claviform, not papillate, achenes glab. to pubescent. Subgenus Eu-Raoulia Beauverd in Bull. Soc. bot. Genève Sèr. 2, 4, 1912, 46.
  • 1. Section Radiatae. 
  • • Inner phyll. with white to yellow radiate tips
    • • (a) Inner phyll. with bright yellow radiate tips; branchlets very densely compacted; lvs, all or most, not > 2 mm. long:
      • 1. australis
    • • (b) Inner phyll. with white to pale yellow tips; branchlets less densely compacted to lax; lvs, all or most, > 3 mm. long
      • • (i) Lvs densely imbricate, recurved, obovate-spathulate:
        • 2. parkii
      • • (ii) Lvs more laxly imbricate, spreading, linear-oblong:
        • 3. subsericea, 4. glabra
  • 2. Section Eradiatae. 
  • • Inner phyll. without white or yellow radiate tips
    • • (a) Lvs distichously arranged:
      • 9. monroi
    • • (b) Lvs not distichously arranged
      • • (i) Lf-tips obtuse:
        • 5. hookeri
      • • (ii) Lf-tips acute or subulate
        • • α Lf suddenly narrowed from broad base:
          • 6. haastii
        • • β Lf gradually narrowed to apex:
          • 7. tenuicaulis, 8. cinerea
• B. Subgenus MISTURA. 
• • Pappus-hairs diverse, some distinctly thickened upwards as in Psychrophyton, some not or hardly thickened as in Raoulia. Lf-arrangement ± intermediate; achenes nearly as in Raoulia:
  • 10. petriensis
• C. Subgenus PSYCHROPHYTON. 
• • Pappus-hairs 15-25, flattened, claviform, papillate; achenes hirsute to papillate. Beauverd in Bull. Soc. bot. Genève Sér. 2, 4, 1912, 41. Genus Psychrophyton Beauverd loc. cit. 2, 1910, 227.
  • 1. Section Acuminatae. 
  • • Lvs glab., subulate-lanceolate, acuminate; phyll. acuminate:
    • 11. subulata
  • 2. Section Trinerves. 
  • • Lvs hairy, not acuminate, distinctly 3-nerved at base; phyll. not acuminate
    • • (a) Inner phyll. with white radiate tips:
      • 12. grandiflora, 13. youngii
    • • (b) Inner phyll. without radiate tips:
      • 14. hectori
  • 3. Section Rotundatae. 
  • • Lvs hairy, 1-nerved or very obscurely 3-nerved, broadly to narrowly rounded at tip, neither emarginate nor apiculate; cushions hard
    • • (a) Inner phyll. without white radiate tips:
      • 15. eximia
    • • (b) Inner phyll. with white radiate tips
      • • (i) Lf-outline obscured at apex by tuft of long hairs:
        • 16. mammillaris
      • • (ii) Lf-outline not obscured at apex by the short appressed tomentum:
        • 17. bryoides
  • 4. Section Truncatae. 
  • • Lvs hairy, 1-nerved, broadly truncate at tips, sts emarginate, sts apiculate; cushions soft:
    • 18. goyenii, 19. rubra, 20. buchananii

Flowering occurs generally from November to January, occ. later, and fruiting from December to February or sts until April.

The genus was published by Hooker in Raoul's Choix 1846, 20, t. 15, to provide for one sp., R. australis. The description includes: "Herba perennis densissimam caespitem efformans, habitu Androsaces bryoides v. Nassauviae pumilae. Ramuli intertexti foliosi, glabrati. Folia alterna 1 mm. longa, spathulata, rotundata . . . Involucri squamae inferiores lineari-spathulatae, apice villosae, albidae, foliis fere consimiles, interiores subsquarrosae, obtusae, glaberrimae, fuscescentes, pappum subaequantes." Under the generic description is given: "Hab. Akaroa in montibus saxosis et altis." The plant collected by Raoul and figured in the Choix must be accepted as the type of the sp. and genus.

In Fl. N.Z. 1, 1853, 135 Hooker extends his conception of the sp. and gives the range as "throughout the Islands". He remarks: "This beautiful little plant varies much in the size of the leaves, which are sometimes so small that the whole plant resembles a moss; it is of a pale sulphur-colour."

Kirk (Stud. Fl. 1899, 302) under his conception of R. australis says: "Extremely variable in habit, but very constant in its floral characters. The preponderance of female florets shows a close relationship to Gnaphalium." He describes 3 vars: " Var. albo-sericea (sp.) Col. in Trans. N.Z. I. 20 (1887) 195. Leaves linear-spathulate or rotund. Florets few, 6-8"; " var. apicenigra (sp.) T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. I. 11, 464. Leaves excessively woolly. Outer involucral bracts black at the tips"; " Var. lutescens. Stems short, often forming compact masses. Leaves 1/18 in.-1/12 in. long, densely imbricating. Heads small; involucral rays yellow. Florets very short." He indicates no localities.

Beauverd (Bull. Soc. bot. Genève Sér. 2, 2, 1910, 221) segregates Kirk's var. lutescens as a sp. apart from R. australis. He remarks, under R. australis : "la plante à petits capitules, qui pourrait bien être celle qui a été illustrée dans l'ouvrage de Raoul sous le nom de Raoulia australis (cf. Choix de plantes de la Nouvelle-Zélande, tab. XV), appartient à une espèce distincte, aisément reconnaissable par ses caractères floraux et sa curieuse structure foliaire."

There is at K a part of a plant collected by Raoul, labelled "Raoul 255 Akaroa". It is a small compact tuft with a few empty capitula, mounted on a sheet bearing specimens of other plants included by Hooker in his widened conception of R. australis. It is clearly the R. lutescens of Beauverd. Dr. R. Melville of Kew Herbarium has kindly also examined the Raoul specimens and confirms the view taken here.