Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Mount Cargill, near Dunedin. Type: BD 29513, at 600 m., G. Simpson.

Compactly branched shrub up to 3 m. tall; branchlets ribbed, clad as are infl.-branchlets in appressed whitish tomentum. Lvs 5-10 × 3-5 cm., on grooved petioles up to 5 cm. long, elliptic, narrowed towards apex and base, subcoriac., glab. and shining above, veins evident; below clad in appressed silvery-white to greyish tomentum, midrib rather prominent. Panicle up to 25 cm. long, laxly branched, lower bracts foliaceous; pedicels up to 2 cm. long, woolly-tomentose. Capitula campanulate, up to 1 cm. diam., discoid; phyll. linear-oblong, subcoriac., subacute to obtuse, woolly-tomentose on back. ♀ up to 5, disk-florets ∞.Achenes 2.5-3 mm. long, striate, rough-pubescent; pappus-hairs up to 5 mm. long, finely barbellate.

DIST.: S., St.? Lowland to higher montane forest and scrub from lat. 40° 30' southwards, more common west of divide.

Simpson and Thomson (loc. cit.) say under S. bennettii : "The larger shrubby Senecios of South Island and Stewart Island, hitherto recorded in the literature as S. elaeagnifolius, are not yet sufficiently known, and S. bennettii must meanwhile be regarded as a composite of two or more closely related forms. The plant described and figured is found at upper forest margins on the eastern side of the divide, and a closely-related form with obovate and frequently much larger leaves fringes also the coastal rocks of the western fiords and the near tidal banks of the Rakiahua River, Stewart Island."