Flora of New Zealand Series

Type: BD 73872, Hauhangaroa Range, A. P. Druce, Jan. 1952.

Tufted herb up to c. 5 cm. tall. Lvs on filiform petioles up to c. 1 cm. long. Lamina narrow-oblong in outline, ± 2 cm. long. Pinnules rather distant, 2-3 × 1-2 mm., deeply toothed to entire. Peduncles nearly filiform, up to c. 25 mm. long. Umbels with c. 5 filiform rays up to ± 1 cm. long. Fr glab., hardly 2 mm. long.

DIST.: N. Hauhangaroa Range, near L. Taupo, A. P. Druce, tussock-grassland; Kaimanawa Range, A. P. D., short turf on river flat. S. Waimea Creek, Tarndale, H. H. Allan, sphagnum-oreobolus bog; Paturau River, N.W. Nelson, L. B. Moore, coastal turf.

Hooker (Handbk N.Z. Fl. 1864, 91) describes his O. haastii thus: "Very similar to O. colensoi but more flaccid. Leaves pinnate, with the leaflets more membranous, petioled, broadly ovate, variously lobed or 3-foliolate. Fruit linear, densely tomentose; pedicels usually shorter than the involucral leaves. Middle Island: Mount Darwin, alt. 3200 ft., Haast."

Kirk (Stud. Fl. 1899, 198) places the name under O. colensoi; "A form with pedicels shorter than the tomentose fruits." Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 656) places the name as an absolute synonym of O. colensoi. Neither refers to the linear frs. The type specimen has lvs and lflts much as those of O. colensoi var. colensoi, but the frs (immature) linear, tomentose, on very short pedicels. A very similar form occurs on Mount Holdsworth, e.g. BD 23399, except that the lflts are sessile or subsessile, hardly petioluled. It is not unlikely that further study will prove Hooker's sp. to be worthy of that rank. It appears more nearly related to O. ramosa than to O. colensoi. Mathias and Constance (loc. cit. 377) regard the name as a synonym of O. ramosa.