Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Asterales Link
Family
Compositae Giseke
Genus
Leptinella Cass.
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Leptinella albida (D.G.Lloyd) D.G.Lloyd & C.J.Webb, New Zealand J. Bot. 25: 103 (1987)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Cotula pectinata var. sericea Kirk, Stud. Fl. New Zealand 325 (1899)
  • ≡ Cotula sericea (Kirk) Cockayne & Allan, Trans. New Zealand Inst. 57: 52 (1927)
  • ≡ Cotula albida D.G.Lloyd, New Zealand J. Bot. 10: 353-354 (1972) nom. nov. pro Cotula pectinata var. sericea Kirk 1899 (non Cotula sericea L.f. 1781)
 Description

A creeping perennial herb forming tight mats up to ca. 1 m wide, densely covered all over with long silky silver hairs. Rhizomes interwoven, ± horizontal on soil surface or ascending and tightly packed, densely hairy; branches us. in clusters, up to 4 radiating from around a flowering node; leaves clustered near apex, remaining crowded or occ. older ones becoming up to 0.8 cm apart. No short shoots. Roots moderately stout for the size of the shoots, up to 0.5 mm diam. Leaves 1-pinnatifid, 4-10 × 2-3 mm; blade coriaceous, dark green but hidden under a dense layer of woolly hairs; pinnae 4-8 pairs, very close-set and not easily discerned under the hairs, cut to rhachis, obovate, obtuse, without teeth. Peduncles longer than leaves, 1-2 cm, nude, densely woolly. Monoecious. Heads 3-10 mm diam.; surface convex; involucre subcampanulate; phyllaries ca. 20 in 2 subequal rows, oblong, grey-green but densely villous, with wide brown scarious margin, not growing after anthesis; pistillate florets 20-50 in 1-2 rows, 2.75 mm long, straight, pale yellow or yellow-red, sts with 1-2 dark stripes along corolla and ovary; corolla ca. 3 times as long as wide, with equal teeth; staminate florets more numerous. Achenes up to 1.6 × 0.6 mm, zb compressed, biconvex, golden-brown, scarcely wrinkled. Flowers in summer.

[Reproduced from Lloyd (1972, New Zealand J. Bot. 10: 277–372) with permission from The Royal Society of New Zealand.]

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Bibliography
Cockayne, L.; Allan, H.H. 1927 ("1926"): Notes on New Zealand floristic botany, including descriptions of new species, & c. (No. 5). Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 57: 48–72.
de Lange, P.J.; Norton, D.A.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Hitchmough, R.; Townsend, A.J. 2009: Threatened and uncommon plants of New Zealand (2008 revision). New Zealand Journal of Botany 47: 61–96. [Naturally uncommon]
de Lange, P.J.; Norton, D.A.; Heenan, P.B.; Courtney, S.P.; Molloy, B.P.J.; Ogle, C.C.; Rance, B.D. 2004: Threatened and uncommon plants of New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 42(1): 45–76.
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Barkla J.W.; Courtney, S.P.; Champion, P.D.; Perrie, L.R.; Beadel, S.N.; Ford, K.A.; Breitwieser, I.; Schönberger, I.; Hindmarsh-Walls, R.; Heenan, P.B.; Ladley, K. 2018: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017. New Zealand Threat Classification Series. No. 22. [Naturally Uncommon]
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Champion, P.D.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Norton, D.A.; Hitchmough, R.A. 2013: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012. New Zealand Threat Classification Series 3. Department of Conservation, Wellington. [Naturally Uncommon]
Kirk,T. 1899: The Students' Flora of New Zealand and the Outlying Islands. Government Printer, Wellington, N.Z.
Lloyd, D.G. 1972: A revision of the New Zealand, Subantarctic, and South American species of Cotula, section Leptinella. New Zealand Journal of Botany 10: 277–372.
Lloyd, D.G.; Webb, C. J. 1987: The reinstatement of Leptinella at generic rank, and the status of the 'Cotuleae' (Asteraceae, Anthemideae). New Zealand Journal of Botany 25: 99–105.