Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Dusky Sound. Type: K, Lyall.

Stock rather stout, simple to branched; lvs pinnate, up to c. 3 dm. long. Sheaths ± 5 × 1 cm., with pale membr. margins; stipules ± 2 cm. × 2 mm., tapering to pungent apex; petioles ± keeled, up to c. 10 cm. long, lower internodes ± 3 cm. long. Primary pinnae 2 pairs, up to 10 cm. × 3 mm., sts with short accessory pinnule; margins thickened, smooth. Rarely some specimens have simple lvs and sts lvs are exstipulate. Stems of male plants slender to rather stout, up to c. 4 dm. long including narrow infl. up to 2 dm. long. Bract-sheaths ± 4 cm. × 15 mm., thin; stipules up to 15 mm. long, linear. pungent; lamina with ± 3 pairs of pinnae up to 15 mm. long, terminal lflt up to 2 cm. long. Umbels on slender peduncles up to ± 3 cm. long; umbellules several. up to c. 1 cm. diam., on filiform unequal rays. Stems of female plants grooved, up to 9 dm. × 5 mm. including infl. ± 2 dm. long, Bracts erect, ± concealing umbels; sheaths c. 4 cm. × 10 mm., rather thick; stipules ± 10 × 2 mm., narrowed to pungent apex; lamina of 1-2 pinnae ± 3 cm. long, terminal lflt slightly longer. Umbellules few. Fr. c. 5 mm. long; mericarps 5-winged; vittae 1-2 per furrow, 2-4 commissural.

Dist.: S. Higher montane to subalpine from c. lat. 41° southwards.

An apparently polymorphic sp. still not very well understood. The Lyall material at K consists of (a) portion of lf, (b) portion (all?) of male infl., (c) part of female infl., (d) stems. Stems deeply furrowed, ± 7 mm. diam., yellow and shining (in dried state). Lvs thin, ± 32 cm. long, sheathing base thin; ultimate segs 15-7 cm. × ± 2 mm., deeply striate. Oliver (loc. cit. 9) remarks, concerning A. montana J. F. Armst., "the type of A. montana in the Canterbury Museum clearly belongs to the same species." He also states: "The photograph of the type of A. lyallii, here reproduced, shows that it is the species afterwards named by Petrie A. cuthbertiana."

Oliver remarks: "The specimens here included under A. lyallii differ a good deal in habit." He distinguishes: (a) the common form, represented by the type specimens; (b) grassland specimens from Caswell Sound with lvs "very much more slender, average length 45 cm. as against 30 cm., stipules and petioles are much longer; leaflets 9-11 instead of the usual 5; leaflets 11/2 mm. wide as against 3 mm. in the typical form"; (c) a specimen from Mt. Cleughearn in CM, " female scape and flower head 40 cm. tall, leaves about 50 cm. long, 6 mm. wide, simple but with irregularly spaced joints; female bract sheaths very broad, 30 mm. long, 20 mm. wide."

A. cuthbertiana Petrie (T.N.Z.I. 47, 1915, 48) was described from specimens collected on " the Hump and End Peak; J. Crosby Smith! Mount Cleughearn; Messrs Crosby Smith and Cuthbert!" Oliver (loc. cit. 9) selects the End Peak specimen as the type. Petrie's description includes: "leaflets 10-15 cm. long, narrow linear, striate, acuminate, subpungent, ± 2 mm. broad, jointed at the point of origin and again some distance above, midrib prominent above and channelled, edges thickened, smooth . . . Male inflorescence broadly linear-oblong . . . Female inflorescence short and broad, ± 9 cm. long, umbels small with sparingly branched peduncles nearly hidden by the crowded broad long-sheathing bracts that terminate in an acuminate leaflet flanked by 2 lateral linear spines or are narrowed to a single fine point". Petrie adds, " The very narrow long rather flaccid leaves and their strongly marked articulations are ready distinguishing characters." A. cuthbertiana is well represented in herbaria; its place in the lyallii complex needs further study.