Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Mount Alta. Type: not located.

Stock stout, woody, branches woody in lower parts, densely compacted, forming cushions up to 15 cm. or more diam., and 5 cm. or more tall. Lvs densely imbricate, 2.5-4 × 2-3 mm., broadly cuneate, truncate, apiculate, 1-nerved; dorsal surface with brush of long straight hairs near base, glab. in upper part; ventral surface glab. in lower portion, with brush of long straight hairs near and projecting beyond apex. Capitula up to 6 mm. diam.; inner phyll. lanceolate, c. 3 mm. long, acute, glab., ± ciliate near base. Florets 10-15, corolla dark crimson. Achenes barely 1 mm. long, clad in stiff hairs; pappus-hairs c. 2.5 mm. long, stiff.

DIST.: S. Subalpine and alpine rocks and fellfield from lat. 44° to 45°.

HYBRIDISM

No hybrids between the spp. of the subgenera Raoulia and Psychrophyton have been recorded; there is no good evidence to suggest that R. petriensis is of such origin. There is very good evidence that hybrids occur between spp. of Leucogenes and subgenus Psychrophyton (see under Leucogenes).

1. Hybrids within subgenus Raoulia. The limits of certain spp. are hard to define, partly owing to the existence of varietal forms, partly owing to hybridism. Field studies leave little or no doubt that the following are linked by hybrid forms: R. hookeri × tenuicaulis; R. glabra × subsericea. Herbarium material is seldom provided with data adequate to decide on the status of certain critical forms, but there is some evidence to suggest that R. hookeri may cross with parkii and R. haastii with tenuicaulis. The groups R. hookeri × australis and R. australis × tenuicaulis have been suggested (Cockayne and Allan in Ann. Bot., Lond. 48, 1934, 51-52) but the evidence is meagre.

2. Hybrids within subgenus Psychrophyton. The field evidence for certain hybrid groups is quite strong. R. bryoides and R. eximia, spp. as distinct as could be wished, occur together in a number of localities; forms, apparently sterile, with lf-characters linking the two are there not uncommon. Where R. mammillaris is also present the complexity of forms increases. Certain specimens collected by F. G. Gibbs on Mount Patriarch (N.W. Nelson) show strong morphological evidence--lf shape and size, tomentum, venation--that they are resultant from the crossing of R. bryoides and R. grandiflora. They rather closely resemble R. gibbsii.