Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Asterales Link
Family
Compositae Giseke
Genus
Leptinella Cass.
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Leptinella nana (D.G.Lloyd) D.G.Lloyd & C.J.Webb, New Zealand J. Bot. 25: 103 (1987)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Cotula nana D.G.Lloyd, New Zealand J. Bot. 10: 340-342 (1972)
Vernacular Name(s):
Button daisy
 Description

A very small, frequently branching, creeping perennial herb forming small diffuse patches. Rhizomes on the soil surface, very slender, less than 0.5 mm diam., green, soft, sparsely pilose; branches common, at the frequent flowering nodes and sts also at 1-3 nodes immediately behind; leaves 1-several at the apex but mostly distant, 0.5-1.0 cm apart. Short shoots variable, occ. few but us. at most rhizome nodes, often converted into rhizomes. Roots very slender and weak, up to 0.3 mm diam. Leaves 1-pinnatifid, 0.4-2.0 × 0.2-0.4 cm; blade 0.3-1.5 cm, obovate or narrowly so, thin, green, without brown pigment, glabrous or sparsely pilose, midrib not raised on ventral surface; pinnae 6-10 pairs, distal ones close-set or overlapping and cut ca. 2/3 to rhachis, proximal ones distant and cut to rhachis, oblong or obovate, obtuse and minutely mucronate; teeth 0-3, on distal margins of proximal pinnae, cut up to ½ across pinna, narrow, acute. Peduncles borne on rhizomes, us. shorter than leaves, 0.3-1.0 cm, nude, pilose, erect at anthesis, sts later bending 180° to bury the fruiting head among leaves. Monoecious. Heads minute, 1.5-2.0 mm wide; surface convex; involucre hemispherical; phyllaries ca. 20 in 2 subequal rows, oblong or obovate red-green, sparsely villous, with a wide sts brown-tipped scarious margin, not growing after anthesis; pistillate florets 20-40 in ca. 2 rows, ca. 1.0 mm long, straight, green; corolla equal in length and width, with equal very shallow teeth; staminate florets fewer, 5-7. Achenes up to 1.0 × 0.5 mm, slightly compressed, in section almost round, green-brown, shallowly wrinkled. Flowers in summer.

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

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Bibliography
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. [Nationally Endangered]
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. [Nationally Critical]
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. [Nationally Critical]
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.