Class
Order
Family
Genus
Classification
Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Celmisia monroi Hook.f., Handb. New Zealand Fl. 133 (1864)
Synonymy:
- = Celmisia monroi var. conspicua W.Martin, Trans. Roy. Soc. New Zealand 65: 183 (1935)
- = Celmisia monroi var. robusta W.Martin, Trans. Roy. Soc. New Zealand 65: 183 (1935)
Vernacular Name(s):
rock cotton plant
Description
Stout woody-based herb with branchlets arising from a multicipital stock, usually hidden; living leaves in large rosettes at the tips of branchlets, the whole plant forming patches of few to many rosettes; leaf sheaths densely imbricate and compacted, forming a pseudo-stem. Leaf lamina (12)—22—(55) × (1.0)—2.5—(3.2) cm, coriaceous, stiff and erect, lanceolate to oblong; upper surface sulcate, concolorous, somewhat rugose in some plants, dark green but generally masked by a thick lead-coloured, dull pellicle which is sometimes partly deciduous on older leaves; lower surface densely covered in glistening appressed tomentum, midrib moderately prominent; tip acute; margins entire, usually slightly recurved; base gradually narrowed to the petiole. Petiole up to 3 cm long. Sheath up to 8-(20) × 2 cm, greenish or rarely pale purple, clad in floccose white hairs. Scape densely clad in floccose white hairs, stout, up to 35 cm long; bracts very numerous, erect, usually up to 6 cm long and revolute, sometimes lowest bracts much larger and foliaceous; monocephalous. Ray florets 80-100, ligulate, the limb narrow-linear, white. Disc florets c. 250, 8-10 mm long, funneliform, yellow, tube with sparse long, eglandular biseriate hairs at base. Achene fusiformcylindric, strongly grooved, 3-8 mm long, usually slightly hairy; hairs short, appressed, bifid. Pappus unequal, 6-10 mm long, of c. 50 barbellate bristles.
[Reproduced from Given (1980, New Zealand J. Bot. 18: 127-140) with permission from The Royal Society of New Zealand.]
Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
Bibliography
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. [Not Threatened]
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. [Not Threatened]
Given, D. R. 1980: A taxonomic revision of Celmisia coriacea (Forst.f.) Hook.f. and its immediate allies (Astereae -- Compositae). New Zealand Journal of Botany 18: 127–140.
Hooker, J.D. 1864: Handbook of the New Zealand Flora: a systematic description of the native plants of New Zealand and the Chatham, Kermadec's, Lord Auckland's, Campbell's and Macquarie's Islands. Part I. Reeve, London.
Martin, W. 1935: Species of Celmisia indigenous to Marlborough, with descriptions of new species and varieties. Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand 65: 169–185.
