Flora of New Zealand Series

creeping everlasting

Prostrate herb, (2)-5-15 cm tall; prostrate stems rooting; erect flowering stems tomentose, c. 0.5-1 mm diam. Lvs spreading, distant, usually glabrous on upper surface, rarely sparsely to moderately tomentose, white- tomentose on lower, apetiolate, elliptic-obovate, or elliptic, mucronate, amplexicaul, (2)-3-7-(12) × (1.5)-2-3.5-(5) mm. Uppermost lvs on flowering branches smaller and more distant. Capitula 3-7 mm diam., solitary, pedunculate. Middle involucral bracts hairy, oblong, obtuse to acute, not radiating, with pale brown and membranous lamina, and stereome green or tinged pink, 4-6 mm long. Disc pale yellow. Achenes minutely papillate, obovoid- cylindric, c. 1 mm long.

N.; S.; St.; Ch.: lowland to subalpine from 38° southwards.

Endemic.

Grassland, scrubland, forest margins and clearings, rocky places, pasture, sand dunes.

FL Jan-Apr.

H. filicaule can be distinguished vegetatively from H. bellidioides by the lvs arranged in 2 rows.