Class
Order
Family
Classification
Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Aciphylla traversii (F.Muell.) Hook.f., Handb. New Zealand Fl. 729 (1867)
Synonymy:
- ≡ Gingidium traversii F.Muell., Veg. Chatham Isl. 18 (1864)
- ≡ Angelica traversii (F.Muell.) Benth. & Hook.f. (1867)
Lectotype (designated by Oliver 1956): Chatham Islands, [HH] Travers 22, October [1863], MEL 2559994; Isolectotype: Chatham Islands, [HH] Travers 22, no date [but received by 1867, so must be from Travers’s first visit; Connor 1998], K K000685211
Vernacular Name(s):
Chatham Island speargrass
Description
Plants ranging from 25 cm. to 1 m. tall, with slender to stout stems up to c. 5 cm. diam. near base. Lvs ∞, 15–75 cm. long, pinnate, rather flaccid, margins smooth or nearly so. Sheaths broad, c. 5 cm. long; stipules spinulose; petioles 10–25 cm. long; internodes up to 10 cm. long. Pinnae 2–4 pairs, 10–40 cm. × 4–12 mm., conspicuously articulated to axis, striate coriac., narrow-linear, pungent. Infl. a ± globose or open panicle. Bracts with broad, submembr. sheaths up to c. 4 cm. long, passing into a simple to 3-foliolate lamina up to c. 4 cm. × 5 mm.; stipules sts absent. Umbels ∞, solitary or 2 together in axils of bracts. Males on stout peduncles 2–12 cm.. long; females with shorter peduncles and denser umbellules, sts polygamous. Umbellules ± 2.5 cm. diam. Fr. 8–10 mm. long; mericarps 5–4–3-winged. Vittae 1–2 per furrow, 3–5 commissural.
[From: Allan (1961) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 1.]
Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
Bibliography
de Lange, P.J.; Gosden, J.; Courtney, S.P.; Fergus, A.J.; Barkla, J.W.; Beadel, S.M.; Champion, P.D., Hindmarsh-Walls, R.; Makan, T.; Michel, P. 2024: Conservation status of vascular plants in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2023. New Zealand Threat Classification Series. No. 43. [Declining]
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. [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.
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. [Recovering]
Hooker, J.D. 1867: 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 Macquarrie's Islands. Part II. Reeve, London.
Mueller, F.J.H. 1864: The vegetation of the Chatham Islands. Government Printer, Melbourne.
Perrie, L.R.; Glenny, D.S.; Shepherd, L.D. 2025: Taxonomic synopsis of Aciphylla (Apiaceae): accepted species, nomenclature, and hybridisation. New Zealand Journal of Botany: 1–41 (online) . (Published online: 21 May 2025 https://doi.org/10.1080/0028825X.2025.2498442)
