Olearia lacunosa Hook.f.
O. alpina Buchan. in T.N.Z.I. 19, 1887, 215.
Original localities: "Middle Island, Rotoroa Lake, alt. 5-7000 ft., Travers; Harper's Pass, alt. 3000 ft., Haast".
Shrub up to 5 m. tall; branchlets, petioles, lvs below and infl-branchlets clad in dense fulvous to ferruginous tomentum. Lvs 7·5-17 cm. × 8 mm.-2.5 cm. including petiole up to 1 cm. long, linear to linear-oblong, acute to acuminate, very coriac., rugose above, margins somewhat revolute, minutely sinuate-dentate; midrib very stout, lateral veins stout, at almost right angles, giving surface a somewhat alveolate appearance. Capitula ∞, up to 1 cm. diam., on slender pedicels, in corymbs; phyll. in 3-4 series, rather laxly imbricate, tomentose to villous on back, lower ovate, upper oblong; florets 8-12, ray-florets broad. Achenes grooved, 2-3 mm. long, linear, pilose; pappus-hairs subequal, up to 4 mm. long.
DIST .: N., S. Lowland to subalpine forest from Tararua Range southwards.
FL. 11-2. FT. 1-2.
Buchanan (loc. cit.) describes his O. alpina as having "Leaves 5-6 inches long, 1/4 inch broad . . . involucres turbinate . . . pappus reddish, whole inflorescence covered with brownish tomentum. Common on the Tararua Mountains, and mountains towards Wanganui." He compares it with O. excorticata, but does not mention O. lacunosa. Very narrow-lvd forms of the latter occur and may prove varietally distinct. Zotov, Elder and Beddie (T.R.S.N.Z. 68, 1939, 308) do not refer to alpina.
