Flora of New Zealand Series

P. lyallii var. sericea Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 1906, 614.

Type locality: Kurow. Type: A, but recorded as "missing" by Cooper (Rec. Auck. Inst. Mus. 3, 1949, 401).

Ascending to erect, or straggling, up to 1 m. tall, us. less; branches glabrate, stout, diverging at wide angle; branchlets ascending, densely clad in silky white hairs; bark very dark brown to almost black. Lvs ± decussate, close-set when young, sessile or very nearly so. Lamina becoming patent, 5-12 × 3-7 mm., elliptic to oblong-lanceolate to ovate-oblong, acute, pale green, coriac., glabrate above, densely silky-hairy below; margins ciliate. Subfloral lvs rather broader. Infl. of (4)-8-15-fld heads. Per. white, villous, 4-7 mm.; lobes concealed by long hairs. Fr. dry.

DIST.: N., S. Lowland to montane grassland and rocky places; rather local, from lat. 38° 30' southwards, east of divide in S.

FL.- FT. 9-2.

A rather ill-assorted group of specimens are found in herbaria under this name, and also others attributed to P. lyallii. Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 583) describes his var. linearis: "Leaves narrower, linear-lanceolate. Otherwise much as in the type . . . near Kurow, Cockayne!" Similar forms have been collected in the Clarence Valley and elsewhere, but the whole assemblage needs further study.