Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Asterales Link
Family
Compositae Giseke
Genus
Sonchus L.
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Sonchus grandifolius Kirk, Trans. New Zealand Inst. 26: 266 (1894)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Embergeria grandifolia (Kirk) Boulos in Eichler, Fl. S. Austral. [J.M. Black], Suppl. 332 (1965)
 Description

Rhizomes stout, fleshy, up to 5 cm. diam.; stems robust, corymbosely branched above, up to 2 m. tall. Basal lvs up to 1 m. long including petiole up to 20 cm. or more long, 20 cm. wide; lamina about oblong in outline, irregularly pinnatifid to subpinnate; lobes coarsely doubly serrate to dentate, sharply toothed; scabrid above, veins prominent below. Cauline lvs broad and sessile at base. Capitula 2.5–4 cm. diam., pedicels clad in white cottony wool. Phyll. in several series, gradually tapering from broad base to subacute tip; outer with median line of spinulose subfoliaceous processes. Florets ∞, purplish. Achenes large, broad, stout, with 1–2 stout longitudinal ribs and ± 4 slender ones.

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

 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. [as Embergeria grandifolia (Kirk) Boulos] [Recovering]
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. [as Embergeria grandifolia (Kirk) Boulos]
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. [Recovering]
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. [as Embergeria grandifolia (Kirk) Boulos] [Recovering]
Eichler, H. 1965: Supplement to J. M. Black's Flora of South Australia (2nd Ed.). Adelaide.
Garnock-Jones, P.J. 2014: Evidence-based review of the taxonomic status of New Zealand’s endemic seed plant genera. New Zealand Journal of Botany 52(2): 163–212.
Hilliard, O. M.; Burtt, B. L. 1981: Some generic concepts in Compositae -- Gnaphaliinae. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 82: 181–232.
Kirk, T. 1894: Remarks on the New Zealand Sow-thistles, with Description of a New Species. Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 26: 263–266.