Flora of New Zealand Series

S. asper var. littoralis Kirk in T.N.Z.I. 26, 1894, 265.

Biennial to perennial herb with stout fleshy taproot up to c. 2 cm. diam. Basal lvs ∞, rosulate, subcoriac. to membr., glab. or ± scabridulous, 8-35 × 2-10 cm., obovate, cuneately narrowed to short flat petiole; margins sinuately dentate, not to slightly lobed. Stems stout, c. 7-50 cm. long, ribbed, branched above, latex cop. Cauline lvs few, up to 15 cm. long, about broad-ovate in outline, ± deeply lobed, lobes blunt to sharp, margins spinulose-dentate, base amplexicaul. Infl. subumbellate, bracted at base of clusters of capitula. Capitula c. 1·5 cm. long, 2 cm. diam., on rather stout pedicels. Florets ∞, yellow. Phyll. in several series, 4-12 mm. long, ovate-attenuate, membr., glab. Achenes 3-3·5 × c. 1·5 mm., elliptic, strongly compressed, glab., with c. 15 longitudinal ribs.

S. littoralis does not appear to have been gathered by Banks or Solander; the specimens seen by me in BM belong to S. asper.

S. asper (L.) Hill Herb. brit. 1, 1769, 47. Basal lvs less rosulate, dark green, ovate to oblong, sharply and coarsely prickly-toothed on margins; stem-lvs more numerous; achenes with three ribs on each face. Prickly sow-thistle. This, the common European sp., has us. been considered as indigenous in N.Z. because it was collected by Banks and Solander. In his Primitiae Solander gives several localities " in graminosis et cultis Novae Zelandiae". It probably came to N.Z. with the Maori, is found only as a ruderal and in cultivated ground, and there have been later introductions.