Flora of New Zealand Series

T. officinale var. pygmaea Hook. f. Fl. N.Z. 1, 1853, 152.

T. officinale var. glabratus Kirk Stud. Fl. 1899, 361 (Leontodon glabratum of Solander's Primitiae).

Taproot stout, up to 1 cm. diam., uni- or pauci-cipital. Lvs 4-10 cm. × 5-10 mm., narrow obovate-oblong to oblanceolate or almost linear in outline, tapering to petiole < lamina; glab. or nearly so; uncinately toothed to lobed or pinnatifid, lobes diminishing towards petiole. Scapes 2-10 cm. or more long, slender, glab. to sparsely hairy, especially towards capitulum. Capitula c. 1-2 cm. long, 1-2 cm. diam., campanulate. Florets ∞, yellow. Phyll. thin, with scarious to hyaline margins; outer imbricate, at first appressed, later spreading, nearly glab., ovate, up to 5 mm. long; inner tapering from broad base, glab., very thin, erect, narrowly to broadly margined, up to 12 mm. long. Receptacle shallowly convex, alveolate, c. 5 mm. diam. Achenes c. 3 mm. long, oblanceolate to oblong, compressed, strongly ribbed, muricate to smooth, with longer teeth above; narrowed abruptly before junction with beak. Beak slender, glab., c. 5-6 mm. long. Pappus-hairs c. 5 mm. long, slender, very obscurely barbellate.

DIST.: N., S., St., Ch. Montane to subalpine, rarely lowland, grassland from lat. 36° 30' southwards; now becoming local.

FL.- FT. 11-2.

T. officinale differs in phyll. lacking scarious margins and the outer ones reflexed.