Flora of New Zealand Series

rayless daisy

Perennial rosette herb with simple, short, non-creeping rhizomes. Basal lvs apetiolate, narrow-obovate to elliptic-oblong, cuneate, obtuse, crenate with 6-15 pairs of teeth distributed in both distal and proximal halves, almost or quite glabrous on upper surface, almost glabrous to moderately clothed in short hairs on lower, sometimes ciliate, 15-40-(60) × 5-18 mm. Peduncle sparsely pilose, < 1 cm long at flowering, elongating up to c. 6 cm long at fruiting, with 1-3 triangular scale-like lvs. Capitula c. 2 mm diam. at anthesis. Involucral bracts ovate-oblong, glabrous, erect at fruiting and often tinged purple, 2-3 mm long. Corolla of ♀ florets white, that of ♂ florets green, later tinged purple. Achenes glabrous, 2-2.5 mm long.

N.: Titahi Bay (Wellington); S.: Wither Hills and Fairhall (Marlborough), Banks Peninsula.

S.E. Australia, Tasmania 1974

FL Oct-Apr.

S. dominii is easily distinguished from S. gunnii by the almost glabrous upper lf surface, the more numerous lf teeth, and the slightly larger heads with more disc florets (Adams, op. cit., gave mostly 7-9 for S. gunnii and mostly 10-14 for S. dominii). The sp. was confused with S. gunnii until Drury (1974, op. cit.) identified it as Lagenifera gunnii "hairless" variant; the earliest collection for N.Z. was made in 1941.