Flora of New Zealand Series

Gingidium traversii F. Muell. Veg. Chath. Is 1864, 18.

Type: Nat. Herb. Vict., Melbourne.

Plants ranging from 25 cm. to 1 m. tall, with slender to stout stems up to c. 5 cm. diam. near base. Lvs ∞, 15-75 cm. long, pinnate, rather flaccid, margins smooth or nearly so. Sheaths broad, c. 5 cm. long; stipules spinulose; petioles 10-25 cm. long; internodes up to 10 cm. long. Pinnae 2-4 pairs, 10-40 cm. × 4-12 mm., conspicuously articulated to axis, striate coriac., narrow-linear, pungent. Infl. a ± globose or open panicle. Bracts with broad, submembr. sheaths up to c. 4 cm. long, passing into a simple to 3-foliolate lamina up to c. 4 cm. × 5 mm.; stipules sts absent. Umbels ∞, solitary or 2 together in axils of bracts. Males on stout peduncles 2-12 cm.. long; females with shorter peduncles and denser umbellules, sts polygamous. Umbellules ± 2.5 cm. diam. Fr. 8-10 mm. long; mericarps 5-4-3-winged. Vittae 1-2 per furrow, 3-5 commissural.

DIST.: Chatham Is.

I leave the citation for the sp. as it is customarily given; the description is a composite one, and the complex has not been satisfactorily resolved. Mueller (Veg. Chath Is 1864, 18) states: "Mr. Travers collected on grassy places of Chatham-Island a second Gingidium, to which, should it prove new, the name G. Traversii might be given. It seems sufficiently characterized by leaves with a but minutely denticulated sheath and (as far as the material of the collection admits to judge) with two or three rigid segments . . . the floral leaves are simply linear and undivided, passing into the petiole without any denticulation . . . It seems nearest in its affinity to G. Monroi," Hooker (Handbk N.Z. Fl, 1867, 729) has, "A[ciphylla] ? Traversii, F. Mueller, Veg. Chatham Islands 18 (Gingidium)." He adds no details not given by Mueller. Buchanan (T.N.Z.I. 7, 1875, 335 ) collected plants on Chatham Is and assigned them to "Aciphylla traversii, F, Muell. (Gingidii sp. F. Muell, l. c.; Hook. f Handb. N.Z. Flora ii. 729)". He was therefore the first to make the combination Aciphylla traversii without query. His description is: "Plant small, 10 in. high, rather flaccid, smooth, leaves all radical, pinnate, 2 in. long, numerous, sheath 2 in. long, denticulate, 1/2 in. broad, with membranous margins, leaflets 5-7, striate and pungent, scape stout, striate, bearing at top one bract and seven involucral leaves similar to the radical leaves, of 5-7 leaflets, and seven long, peduncled, densely capitate, globular umbels of fruit, peduncles unequal, 11/2-2 inches long, grooved, umbels 1 in. in diameter, compound, involucral, leaves of fruit, linear, subulate, ⅓ in. long, carpels with five wings, the central dorsal broadest." A fresh study of the complex should be profitable.