Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: "Slopes of Mount Balloon, head of Clinton Valley". Type: A, 6529, F. G. Gibbs, Jan. 1914; a female plant.

Stock multicipital, plant forming compact masses of rosettes up to 3 dm. diam. Lvs rather soft, striate; sheaths thin, with hyaline margins, c. 6 cm. long, tapering from 2 cm. to 7 mm,; stipules c. 6·5 cm. × 5 mm., linear-oblong, abruptly narrowed to acicular tip; petioles flat, up to c. 8 mm. long, sts obsolete; internodes us. evident, up to 10 mm. long. Primary pinnae 2-3 paris, up to ± 6 cm. × 5 mm., abruptly narrowed to pungent apex. Male stems stout, up to 3 dm. × ± 15 mm. Bracts ± 5 cm. long; sheaths broad, up to c. 2.5 × 1·5 cm. Stipules and lamina lflike. Umbels 6-12, close-set, forming a globose head up to ± 12 cm. diam. Primary rays stout, ± 4 cm. long, ± whorled and subtended by whorl of bracts. Umbellules several, crowded, up to 2 cm. diam., on ∞ slender rays ± 5 mm. long. Female stems stout, up to ± 3 dm. tall including infl. up to 15 cm. diam. Primary rays stout, grooved, ± 6 cm. × 3 mm. Involucral bracts whorled; sheaths ± 10 × 7 mm., submembr.; stipules and lamina lflike, up to 4 cm. long. Umbellules ± 3 cm. diam., rays ∞ fls crowded. Fr. ± 4-5 mm. long; mericarps 4-5-winged.

Dist.: S. Higher montane to subalpine, western Otago and Fiordland.