Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: "Tarndale Plains, alt. 4000 ft." Type: K, Travers.

Us. very aromatic glab. herb; stems much-branched, creeping, rooting, ascending at tips, stout, c. 2-4 mm. diam.; plant forming close to rather open patches up to ± 1 m. diam.; branches stout, ringed by lf-scars. Lvs clustered on branchlets on rather fleshy petioles ± (10)-20-25 mm. long, prolonged into broad sheaths 10-30 mm. long. Lamina pinnate to pinnatisect, broad-oblong, 10-15-(40) × 4-15 mm. Pinnae us. 2 pairs below terminal 3-lobed apical portion, but sts more compound, coriac., ± fleshy, glab., opp., obliquely oblanceolate, acute to subacute, gland-dotted, up to 7 × 2 mm. Scape slender, ± 5-10 cm. long, sparsely to rather densely clad in ascending white hairs; bracts several to 1, distant, linear, up to ± 5 mm. long. Capitula (8)-10-15-(20) mm. diam.; receptacle convex. Phyll. in 2-3 series, ovate- to narrow-oblong, 4-5 mm. long, ± hairy on outer surface, glandular; margins purple, ± erose, scarious, sts apiculate, sts accrescent. Florets glandular, ♂ and ♀ us. on same plant, but plants sts dioec. ♀ with corolla cut above into 4 ovate-triangular teeth, ± 1 mm. long; ♂ funnelform, 3-6 mm. long; teeth 4, minute, triangular. Achenes compressed-obovoid, eglandular, to glandular, 2-3 mm. long, ribbed, ± muriculate.

DIST.: N., S. Montane to subalpine streamsides or gravel, damp grassland (occ.), damp rocky places and fellfield, herbfield; from Ruahine Range to c. lat. 44°.

A polymorphic and plastic sp., easily grown and deserving detailed study.