Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Asterales Link
Family
Compositae Giseke
Genus
Pachystegia Cheeseman
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Pachystegia insignis (Hook.f.) Cheeseman, Man. New Zealand Fl., ed. 2, 910 (1925)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Olearia insignis Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. II (Fl. Nov.-Zel.) Part II, 331 (1855)
  • ≡ Aster insignis (Hook.f.) F.Muell., Fragm. (Mueller) 5, 5 (1865)
Lectotype (perhaps holotype). N. Zealand, Dr Munro 36, Banks of the Waihopai, Jan[?] 2[?] 1854, grows out of naked rocks, generally on steep banks of streams: but always on the very driest ground (K000882113).
  • = Aster neozelandicus Kuntze, Revis. Gen. Pl. 1, 316 (1891)
Vernacular Name(s):
Marlborough daisy; Marlborough rock daisy
 Description

Stout spreading shrub up to 2 m. tall, us. less. Branches stout, densely tomentose. Lvs in subrosettes towards tips of branchlets, very thick and coriac., entire (occ. retuse to emarginate), glab. above when mature, clad in dense soft white to buff or fulvous tomentum below, us. with line of tomentum along margins above. Petioles stout, up to 5 cm. or more long; lamina 6·5–16 × 3–7·5 cm., oblong to obovate-oblong, or ovate-oblong, obtuse. Peduncles 10–30 cm. × 3–5 mm., densely tomentose, nude or with distal foliaceous bracts often subtending capitula. Capitula subglobose; receptacle 1–2 cm. diam. Phyll. tomentose without, glab. and lustrous within. Ray-florets ∞, as are the disk-florets. Achenes c. 1 cm. long, very narrow-linear, silky-hairy. Pappus-hairs c. 1 cm. long, barbellate, slightly thickened above and the barbels there longer.

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

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Phenology

Flowering: Dec.–Feb.; Fruiting: Jan.–May.

 Bibliography
Cheeseman, T.F. 1925: Manual of the New Zealand Flora. Edition 2. Government Printer, Wellington.
Connor, H.E.; Edgar, E. 1987: Name changes in the indigenous New Zealand flora, 1960–1986 and Nomina Nova IV, 1983–1986. New Zealand Journal of Botany 25: 115–170.
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]
Heenan, P.B.; Molloy, B.P.J. 2023: Recognition of Pachystegia hesperia sp. nov. and notes on P. insignis, P. minor and P. rufa (Asteraceae: Astereae). New Zealand Journal of Botany 61(2-3): 158–176. (Published online: 2022 (https://doi.org/10.1080/0028825X.2022.2107939))
Hooker, J.D. 1854–1855: 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 II. Flowerless plants. Lovell Reeve, London.
Kuntze, C.E.O. 1891: Revisio Generum Plantarum. Vol. 1. Arthur Felix, Leipzig.
Mueller, F.J.H. von 1865–1866: Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae. Vol. 5. Government Printer, Melbourne.