Flora of New Zealand Series

Leptinella squalida Hook. f. Fl. N.Z. 1, 1853, 129.

Type locality: Hawkes Bay. Type: K, Colenso 4250.

Stems slender, branched, wiry, ± pilose, creeping, rooting; plant forming patches up to ± 4 dm. diam. Lvs mostly clustered at nodes; petioles slender, ± pilose, 1-2 cm. long; sheaths scarious, ± 5 mm. long, us. pilose. Lamina of narrow-obovate order, membr., clad in soft hairs to almost glab.; ± 3-5 cm. × 5-10 mm. (shade forms may be much longer, insolated much smaller); pinnate in lower part, pinnatisect to pinnatifid in upper; costa narrow, flat, ± pilose. Pinnae 8-15 pairs; mid-pinnae up to c. 5 mm. long, upper margins deeply incised, teeth triangular, acute, apiculate, up to 1∙5 mm. long; lower margins curved, us. entire. Lowest pinnae minute, narrow. Scapes of very diverse lengths, ranging from 10-75 mm. long, slender, with delicate spreading hairs, nude; receptacle slightly convex. Capitula of ♂ 4-5 mm. diam.; phyll. few in 2 series, broadly obovate-oblong, ± purple-tipped and -margined, silky outside, scarious. Capitula of ♀ 6-9 mm. diam.; phyll. in 3-4 series, c. 3 mm. long, broad, obtuse, silky, purple-margined, incurved over eglandular florets. ♀ ∞, with ovoid corolla, much-constricted at minutely 4-toothed apex; ♂ funnelform, minutely 4-toothed. Achenes ± curved, obconic, glab., grooved, almost subtrigonous.

DIST.: N., S., St. Coastal, lowland to higher montane damp grassland, damp rocky places, herbfield, stream margins, from Bay of Plenty southwards.

A polymorphic and very plastic sp.