Flora of New Zealand Series

O. operina Hook. f. Handbk N.Z. Fl. 1867, 731 ("form with lax bracts on the scapes, Chatham Is., W. Travers").

O. angustifolia var. , Buchan. in T.N.Z.I. 7, 1874, 336, t. 15.

Type: W, Chatham Is, H. H. Travers.

Shrub up to 2 m. tall; branchlets, lvs below, and peduncles clad in soft white tomentum. Lvs 2.5-8 × 1·5-4 cm., lanceolate to elliptic or oblong-ovate, acute, with short broad petiole, coriac., closely serrate, teeth blunt, calloused. Peduncles 5 cm. or more long; bracts few, linear-lanceolate. Capitula 3·5-4·5 cm. diam.; outer phyll. densely clad in cobwebby tomentum on back, acute; ray-florets white to purplish, disk-florets purplish; achenes linear, slightly curved, pubescent to almost glab., 4-5 mm. long; pappus-hairs slender, up to 5 mm. long.

DIST.: Ch. Dry to somewhat boggy ground, extending inland on ridges.

FL. 10-2.

Cockayne (T.N.Z.I. 34, 1902, 320) published his  var. dendyi : "Tomentum (when dry) yellower and denser than that of the type. Florets purple. The type has white florets, which, when fading, are of a purplish colour. Hab. Pitt Island. Collected by Professor A. Dendy".