Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Asterales Link
Family
Compositae Giseke
Genus
Leucogenes Beauverd
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Leucogenes leontopodium (Hook.f.) Beauverd, Bull. Soc. Bot. Genève, sér. 2, 2: 242 (1910)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Helichrysum leontopodium Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. II. (Fl. Nov.-Zel.) Part I, 141, t. 37B (1853)
  • = Gnaphalium colensoi Hook.f., Handb. New Zealand Fl. 154 (1864) – as Gnaphalium (Helichrysum) colensoi
Vernacular Name(s):
North Island edelweiss
 Description

Stock stout, woody; stems much-branched, decumbent, woody at base; branchlets ascending. Lvs sessile, 8–20 × 4–5 mm., 3–5-nerved at base, linear- to lanceolate-oblong, acute to subacute, clad on both surfaces in silvery-white to yellowish, shining, appressed tomentum; basal lvs crowded in subrosettes, cauline densely imbricate to rather distant. Peduncles up to 10 cm. long, clad in appressed foliaceous bracts. Capitula 8–15, congested into dense glomerules up to 25 mm. diam., subtended by up to 20 densely woolly lvs up to 2 cm. long, forming a conspicuous white ray. Phyll. linear-lanceolate, c. 5 mm. long, scarious with basal stiffening, toothed and ciliate towards acute apex, ± woolly on back towards tip. Achenes c. 1 mm. long, pappus-hairs c. 4 mm. long.

[From: Allan (1961) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 1.]

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Phenology

Flowering: Nov.–Mar.; Fruiting: Jan.–Apr.

 Bibliography
Beauverd, G. 1910: Contribution à l'Étude des Composées. Suite V: Recherches sur la tribu des Gnaphaliées. Raoulia, Psychrophyton, Ewartia, Leucogenes and Leontopodium. Bulletin de la Société Botanique de Genève, sér. 2, 2: 207–260.
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]
Hooker, J.D. 1852–1853 ("1853"): The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror in the Years 1839–1843, under the command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross. II. Flora Novae-Zelandiae. Part I. Flowering plants. Lovell Reeve, London.
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.