Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Asterales Link
Family
Compositae Giseke
Genus
Celmisia Cass.
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Celmisia spedenii G.Simpson, Trans. Roy. Soc. New Zealand 75: 200 (1945) – as Celmisia spedeni
Vernacular Name(s):
Needle-leaved celmisia
 Description

Woody-based perennial herb arising from a multicipital stock and forming small to large mats up to 1 m diameter. Leaf lamina linear, rigid, often curved; current season's leaves soon becoming reflexed; 4-12 cm × 1.3-3.8 mm; upper surface corrugated, clad in persistent silvery pellicle; lower surface clad in cream appressed tomentum; margins entire, recurved but not right to midrib; tip acute and usually acicular with short hairs. Leaf sheath up to 3.5(-5) cm long, membranous, greenish or occasionally reddish, clad in a pellicle. Scape 10-15 cm × c. 3 mm; bracts numerous, up to 3.5 cm long, densely white tomentose. Involucral bracts erect, linear-subulate, acute, up to 15 mm long, silvery- grey with white arachnoid hairs, venation simple. Receptacle obconic, surface alveolate. Ray florets up to 2 cm long, limb narrow, linear-lanceolate and glabrous, tube narrow and glabrous. In disc florets, tube gradually narrowed from apex to base, glabrous; stamen tip acute, anther tails short; style bifid, arms differentiated into a lower paralled- sided papillose portion about equal to the triangular appendage which bears short collecting hairs. Pappus bristles unequal, c. 30-35 in number, 5-6 mm long with closely spaced, short teeth. Achenes 3-4.5 mm long, fusiform, ribbed, glabrous.

[Reproduced from Lee & Given (1984, New Zealand J. Bot. 22: 585–592) 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]
Lee, W. G.; Given, D. R. 1984: Celmisia spedenii G. Simpson, an ultramafic endemic, and Celmisia markii, sp. nov., from southern New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 22: 585–592.
Simpson, G. 1945: Notes on Some New Zealand Plants and Descriptions of New Species (No. 4). Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand 75: 187–202.