Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: summit of Mount Rakiahua. Type: W, T. Kirk, 29 Jan. 1887.

Stock slender, stems occ. solitary, us. close-set forming mosslike patches up to 5 cm. diam. Lvs densely imbricate, coriac., 3-4 × < 1 mm., linear-oblong, retuse, margins thickened above sheathing-base. Capitula sessile, terminal, minute, invested by lvs; phyll. c. 5, oblong, obtuse to apiculate, obscurely veined. Florets 4-8; ♀ with slender, cylindric, obscurely toothed corolla-tube; disk-florets with tubular more distinctly toothed corolla-tube. Achenes pubescent to setose, clavate, 4-angled; angles produced into slender setae.

DIST.: St. Peaty and boggy places on mountains.

INCERTAE SEDIS

A. Christenseni Petrie in T.N.Z.I. 47, 1915, 51. "Leaves radical, rosulate, 15-18 mm. long, 4 mm. broad, narrow-cuneate, thin, obtuse, shortly toothed at and near the tip, above sparsely clad with rather long slender hairs composed of a single row of cells, under-surface more glabrous except on the evident midrib. Scapes several, erect, simple, slender, sparsely pilose, with 2 usually opposite linear bracts near the base, maturing irregularly and in fruit elongating to 15-20 mm. Heads solitary, small (11/4 mm. in diameter); involucral bracts in two series, shortly oblong, obtuse, thin, crenately wavy at the top, the inner narrower; flowers numerous, minute, not exceeding the involucre. Achenes 20 or fewer, 1 mm. long, linear-oblong, compressed, slightly thickened along the margin. Hab.--Bare spots in dry fescue tussock steppe, Hanmer Plains." Type: W. C. E. Christensen.

The description is quoted from Petrie. The sp. is known only from 2 small specimens. Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 1005) found the material "insufficient to satisfy me that the species is a true Abrotanella". It may possibly prove to be a n.

A. linearis var. apiculata Simpson et Thomson in T.R.S.N.Z. 73, 1943, 170. "Stems slender, covered by older leaf remains, branching to form loose tufts, or the rosettes single or distant. Leaves all radical, 15-20, dark green, 2-3 cm. long, loosely spreading or somewhat deflexed, narrow-linear, apiculate, rather soft, grooved at the midrib, sparsely dotted with rufus hairs towards the base; sheathing base covered at and below the shoulder with long straggling rufus hairs. Scape slender, 5-7 cm. high, with 2-4 linear bracts, purplish. sparsely pilose, one flowered, or sometimes 2-3 flowered by forking. Heads 4 mm. diam.; involucral bracts about 15, linear oblong, apiculate, minutely pubescent, with a single nerve; florets about 25. Females small, thickened at the base, deeply 4 lobed; males larger, ovate, lobes not spreading. Achenes clavate, 4 angled, dotted with thick hairs. Habitat: Moist mossy rock faces at the sources of the Freeman River, near Fowler Pass, Lake Manapouri. Altitude 1000-1200 m."

The specimens on the type sheet (BD 75796) agree with the description except that the hairs are now very scant and the achenes fusiform, beaked, rather than clavate.

Allan (T.R.S.N.Z. 76, 1947, 589) wrote: "Abrotanella spathulata Hook. f. Previously only recorded for the Auckland and Campbell Islands; this species was independently collected by Mr. Owen Fletcher and Miss L. B. Moore in herbfield near the Homer tunnel, Fiord Botanical District." The resemblance is very close, but the achenes agree rather with those of Simpson and Thomson's plants referred to above. Further field studies are desirable.