Flora of New Zealand Series

bone-seed

Bushy, much-branched shrub or small tree, up to c. 2-(3) m tall, not armed. Stems ribbed, lanate when young but soon almost glabrous. Lvs lanate when young, soon glabrous, coriaceous, obovate to elliptic, acute or obtuse, mucronate, irregularly serrate with (1)-3-9 teeth on each side, 35-70-(90) × 10-35 mm; lvs subtending infl. smaller, narrower and with fewer teeth. Capitula (15)-25-30-(35) mm diam., in loose bracteate corymbs. Involucral bracts in 3 rows, sparsely hairy and glandular; outer bracts linear-lanceolate to narrow-triangular, 2-3 mm long; inner bracts ovate to ovate-triangular, 4-6 mm long, with more conspicuous membranous margins. Ray florets (3)-5-6-(7); ligules bright yellow, 8-13-(15) mm long; disc florets numerous, yellow. Drupes subglobose, black when ripe, 6-9 mm diam., very hard with a thin fleshy covering.

N.: throughout, mainly coastal; S.: Nelson City, Port Hills (Christchurch), Andersons Bay (Dunedin).

S.W. Cape area, South Africa 1870

Coastal cliffs, waste places, scrubland.

FL Sep-Feb-(May).

Bone-seed, or salt bush as it is often called, is occasionally cultivated. The fleshy fr. is dispersed by birds and the sp. is now very common in many favourable coastal localities. If the drupe is not dispersed when fleshy, it eventually dries and falls to the ground. The drupe, with the thin fleshy covering over the very hard stone, distinguishes this sp. from all other Asteraceae wild in N.Z. N.Z. plants are referable to subsp. monilifera and have been previously known in N.Z. as Osteospermum moniliferum.