Flora of New Zealand Series

spotted hawkweed

Stolons 0. Stem erect, ± stout, 15-30 cm tall, with numerous long simple usually reflexed eglandular hairs below and numerous stellate hairs especially above. Lvs mostly basal, dull green with conspicuous dark purple streaks above, pale and often purplish beneath, elliptic or narrow-elliptic to lanceolate, acute, cuneate to abruptly cuneate at base, shallowly to coarsely dentate; teeth apiculate, the basal spreading; eglandular hairs sparse to 0 above, numerous beneath and on petiole, short and rough on margins; stellate hairs 0 above, 0 or sparse beneath. Rosette lvs petiolate; lamina (2)-5-12 × (1.5)-2-3.5 cm. Stem lvs 1-(2), similar to basal, subsessile. Capitula 3-5. Peduncles ± straight, with numerous to dense stellate hairs and sparse short glandular hairs. Involucre 9-11 mm long; bracts very narrowly triangular, with sparse to numerous dark-based eglandular hairs, sparse to numerous glandular hairs, and sparse to numerous stellate hairs. Florets bright yellow, not striped on outer face, c. 2-3× length of involucre. Achenes black, c. 3 × 0.5 mm. Pappus sordid, 6-7 mm long.

S.: Marlborough (Dillon Stream), Canterbury (Hanmer Forest Park).

Europe 1988

Under Nothofagus and Kunzea forest and exotic conifer plantations.

H. pollichiae belongs to the H. maculatum group and is distinguished from all other Hieracium spp. in N.Z. by the purple-streaked lvs. It is most similar to H. lepidulum and H. murorum, differing from the former by its solitary (rarely 2) stem lf and from the latter by its cuneate lf base.