Flora of New Zealand Series

Erect annual or short-lived perennial herb. Mid cauline lvs sparsely to densely hispid especially on lower surface, apetiolate, elliptic, evenly, finely dentate, slightly amplexicaul and shallowly to deeply dentate at base, (3)-4-8 × (0.5)-1-3 cm. Uppermost lvs smaller, often narrower and with few remote teeth. Supplementary bracts 0-3, 1-2 mm long. Involucral bracts 5-7-(8), glabrous, 4.5-5.5 mm long. Ray florets 0. Disc greenish yellow, c. 1.5 mm diam. Achenes subcylindric, only slightly narrowed to and slightly constricted below apex, with 1-3 rows of hairs in grooves between broad ribs, 2-2.5 mm long.

K.: Raoul and Herald Is.

Endemic.

Usually coastal habitats, forest margins and clearings, sometimes waste places.

FL Oct-Jan.

Belcher (op. cit.) noted that although S. kermadecensis resembles S. minimus, its closest affinities are with S. biserratus in both achene and floret characters. In lf incision S. kermadecensis is similar to S. minimus (Fig. 30). One collection from the Poor Knights Is, which has characteristics of both S. minimus and S. kermadecensis, was referred by Drury (op. cit.) to S. kermadecensis. Allan (1961) treated S. kermadecensis as Erechtites kermadecensis.