Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Asterales Link
Family
Compositae Giseke
Genus
Celmisia Cass.
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Celmisia traversii Hook.f., Handb. New Zealand Fl. 134 (1864)
Synonymy:
  • = Celmisia praestans Allan, Trans. & Proc. Roy. Soc. New Zealand 76: 589 (1947)
 Description

Woody-based herb with short branchlets arising from a multicipital stock, usually just below the soil surface; living leaves in rosettes at the tips of branchlets; the whole plant forming a clump of few to many rosettes. Leaf sheaths densely imbricate and compacted into pseudostem. Leaf lamina (5)- 10-21-(30) × (1.5)-4.5-6.5-(9) cm, coriaceous, at first erect but later decumbent, lanceolate, elliptic, oblong to sometimes oblanceolate; upper surface often sulcate, concolorous, deep green, glabrous or with whitish hairs especially along the midrib; lower surface densely clad with thick femigineous or deep buff tomentum; tip acute, margins entire, rimmed with femigineous hairs; base obliquely cuneate or truncate; petiole usually short, sometimes up to 1/3-2/3 lamina length, purple, often clad in floccose whitish hairs. Scape purple, clad in buff or ferrugineous tomentum, up to 30 cm long; bracts numerous, erect, linear; monocephalous. Capitula up to 6 cm diam. Phyllaries in several series, linear-subulate, erect, clad throughout with brown tomentum. Ray florets c. 75, ligulate, the limb linear-lanceolate, white. Disc florets c. 160, funneliform, yellow; tube with eglandular, biseriate hairs. Achene fusiformcylindric, strongly ribbed, 5 mm long, glabrous. Pappus unequal 6-7 mm long, of c. 30 bristles.

[Reproduced from Given (1984, New Zealand J. Bot. 22: 139–158) with permission from The Royal Society of New Zealand.]

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Bibliography
Allan, H.H. 1947: Notes on New Zealand Floristic Botany, Including Description of New Species etc. (No. 8). Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand 76: 589–596.
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. 1984: A taxonomic revision of Celmisia subgenus Pelliculatae section Petiolatae (Compositae -- Astereae). New Zealand Journal of Botany 22: 139–158.
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.