Class
Order
Family
Genus
Classification
Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Leptinella potentillina F.Muell., Veg. Chatham Isl. 28, plate 6 (1864)
Synonymy:
- ≡ Cotula potentillina (F.Muell.) Druce, Bot. Soc. Exch. Club Brit. Isles 4 Suppl.: 617 (1917)
- = Cotula muelleri Kirk, Stud. Fl. New Zealand 324 (1899)
Description
A diffusely creeping perennial herb. Rhizomes on soil surface, rather thick, pale, sparsely pilose; branches usually single at flowering nodes; leaves in two rows, single at apex, 0.5-4.0 cm apart. Short shoots alternate on both sides of the rhizome, with clustered leaves, sts converted into rhizomes with distant leaves. Roots slender and weak, up to 0.5 mm diam. Leaves 1-pinnatifid, 2-12 × 0.4-2.5 cm; blade 1-8 cm, obovate, subfleshy, yellow-green, without brown pigment, glabrous or almost so, midrib slightly raised on proximal part of ventral surface: pinnae 6-15 pairs, not overlapping, cut to rhachis or distalmost sinuses not quite reaching rhachis in larger leaves, elliptic; teeth on most pinnae, up to 12 per pinna, almost equally on distal and proximal margins, cut ca. ¼ across pinna, triangular, obtuse or acute, occ. themselves with 1-2 teeth. Peduncles us. borne on rhizomes, us. longer than leaves, 2-7 cm, nude or with 1 simple bract, sparsely pilose. Monoecious. Heads 5-8 mm diam., surface hemispherical to steeply convex; involucre flat or spreading; phyllaries 15-30 in 2 or more subequal rows, elliptic to oblong, green, almost glabrous, with a narrow transparent scarious margin, not growing after anthesis; pistillate florets 60-200 in 4-6 rows, ca. 2.0 mm long, slightly curved, yellow-green; corolla slightly longer than wide, with unequal teeth; staminate florets more numerous. Achenes up to 1.5 × 0.8 mm, slightly compressed, almost round or irregularly angled, with a pale unwrinkled papery surface turning brown and smooth. Flowers in spring and summer.
[Reproduced from Lloyd (1972, New Zealand J. Bot. 10: 277–372, as Cotula potentillina (F.Muell.) Druce) 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. [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]
Druce, G. C. 1917 ("1916"): Nomenclatural Notes: Chiefly African and Australian. Report / Botanical Society and Exchange Club of the British Isles for 1916, 4 Suppl.: 601–653.
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.
Mueller, F.J.H. 1864: The vegetation of the Chatham Islands. Government Printer, Melbourne.
