Class
Order
Family
Genus
Classification
Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Leptinella tenella (A.Cunn.) D.G.Lloyd & C.J.Webb, New Zealand J. Bot. 25: 102 (1987)
Synonymy:
- ≡ Soliva tenella A.Cunn., Ann. Nat. Hist. 2: 128 (1839)
- = Cotula membranacea D.G.Lloyd, New Zealand J. Bot. 10: 310 (1972)
Description
A soft creeping perennial herb forming loose patches or part of a turf. Rhizomes at or near soil surface, green or dark, flexible, sparsely villous; branches usually single at flowering nodes; leaves in two rows, single at the apex, 0.5-2.0 cm apart. Short shoots alternate on both sides of the rhizome, with up to 6 clustered leaves, occ. converted into rhizomes with distant leaves. Roots numerous, slender, up to 0.4 mm diam. Leaves 1-pinnatifid, 1-4 × 0.4-1.5 cm; blade up to 3.5 cm long, obovate, membranous, bright green, often with the proximal pinnae especially covered with brown pigment, glabrous; midrib not raised on ventral surface; pinnae 6-10 pairs, not or scarcely overlapping, cut to rhachis, broadly elliptic to suborbicular; teeth numerous, us. on all pinnae, up to 12 per pinna, extending completely around the margin or lacking on the proximal side, cut ca. 1/3 across pinna, narrowly triangular to oblong, acute or mucronate, larger ones sts themselves with 1 or 2 teeth. Peduncles us. borne on rhizomes, ca. equal to leaves, 0.5-1.5 cm, nude or with 1 simple bract, sparsely pilose. Monoecious. Heads 2-6 mm diam.; surface convex; involucre upcurved to flat; phyllaries 8-12 in 2 subequal rows, broadly elliptic, green, glabrous, with broad red-brown scarious margins, not growing after anthesis; pistillate florets 20-45 in 2 or more rows, ca. 1.5 mm long, exceeding phyllaries, slightly curved, yellow-green; corolla slightly longer than wide, with almost equal teeth; staminate florets fewer, 10-15. Achenes up to 1.3 × 0.6 mm, slightly compressed, in section almost round or irregularly angled, with a pale unwrinkled papery surface turning brown and smooth. Flowers in spring.
[Reproduced from Lloyd (1972, New Zealand J. Bot. 10: 277–372, as Cotula membranacea D.G.Lloyd) with permission from The Royal Society of New Zealand.]
Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
Bibliography
Cunningham, A. 1839: Florae insularum Novae Zelandiae precursor; or a specimen of the botany of the islands of New Zealand. Annals of Natural History 2: 125–132.
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. [Declining]
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 Vulnerable]
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. [Declining]
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.
