Flora of New Zealand Series

Ligusticum aromaticum Hook. f. Handbk N.Z. Fl. 1864, 96.

Hooker gives a composite description based on various specimens from " Northern Island. East and south coasts, and interior, Banks and Solander, Colenso, etc. Middle Island, Bidwill, Lyall, etc. The smallest species I know, 8 inches to a foot high. Leaves all radical, except one at each fork of the stem, recurved. Petiole 4-6 inches long, stout, jointed, with eight pair of pinnae extending nearly to the base, 1/3 inch broad across the pinnae, which coriaceous, deeply veined, cuneate-orbicular, more or less deeply toothed, or cut into linear segments, each ending is a little bristle. Stems or scapes slender sparingly divided. Male umbels 11/2-2 inches across, many-flowered; flowers white, one line across. Calyx lobes variable, sometimes obsolete. Female umbels much smaller, contracted, fewer-flowered. Involucral leaves partial and general, few, linear-subulate, shorter than the peduncles. Fruit shortly pedicellate. Carpels linear, 2 lines long, equal, each with five winged ribs. Seeds deeply grooved."

Hooker indicates no type; Colenso's "1600" at K is selected as type, as representing a widespread form included by Hooker in his diagnosis. I attempt a key to several vars, but linking forms occur of uncertain status. The different forms are in FL. 10-2, FT. 11-4.

Fig. 18. ANISOTOME AROMATICA. Leaves from type specimens of varieties (except var. aromatica from Mt. Hector); pinnule-tips drawn ten times larger. Var. flabellifolia, upper part of leaf only; var. lanuginosa, single pinna only, on same scale as pinnule-tips. © All rights reserved. [Image: 4X10]