Flora of New Zealand Series

A. colensoi var. maxima Kirk Stud. Fl, 1899, 207.

Type locality: Mount Maungatua, near Dunedin. Type: BD 11227, J. S. Thomson.

Forming huge tussocks up to 3 m. or more tall. Lvs up to ± 1·5 m. long, glaucous, lower 2-pinnate, upper 1-pinnate; margins rather obscurely serrulate-crenulate; midribs evident but not conspicuous. Sheaths ± 10 × 3·5 cm., tapering slightly to apex, pale yellowish, ribbed coriac. Stipules up to c. 6 cm. × 3 mm., tapering to rigid pungent point ± 3 mm. long; sts with a pair of stout basal pinnules up to 2 cm. long; Petioles ± concavo-convex. ± 20 cm. long; margins stout, minutely serrulate-crenulate; lower internodes ± 10-5 cm. long. Primary pinnae ± 35-45 cm. × 15-20 mm., widening from base, then rather abruptly narrowing to hard pungent point up to 5 mm. long; secondary similar, shorter, sts with accessory pinnules. Stems rigid, deeply grooved, 2-3-4 m. × ± 10 cm., gradually tapering to infl. ± 1m. tall. Bract-sheaths ± 10·5 × 2.5 cm., tapering slightly to apex; stipules ± 2.5 cm., rigid, tapering to hard pungent point; lamina up to c. 4 cm. long, irregularly 2-pinnate, with central lflt up to 15 cm. or more long; Umbels large, on branched peduncles or rays; male umbels ± 2-3 dm. long, females ± 1 dm. long. Umbellules ∞, rather lax, on slender rays. Fr. (4)-8-(10) mm. long; mericarps 4-3-winged.

DIST.: S. Montane to lower subalpine from c. lat. 43º southwards.

Cockayne (loc. cit. 1914, 28) adopted the name A. maxima, but did not make the formal new combination. Cockayne and Allan (loc. cit. 1927) did not refer to var. maxima of colensoi when creating A. scott-thomsonii, which appears to have no essential differences from the larger plants names by Kirk.