2-lipped; outer lobe or ligule broad, inner small, narrow, revolute. Disc-florets hermaphrodite, tubular with a campanulate 5-toothed mouth. Anthers obtuse at the base, entire. Style-branches of the hermaphrodite florets truncate, papillose at the tips. Achenes terete or obscurely angled, papillose. Pappus-hairs copious, in 1 series.
A small genus of two (or more probably one) species, confined to New Zealand. It differs from Senecio in habit, in the shape of the female corolla, and in the papillose achenes.
| Leaves dull. Involucres whitish, shining | 1 B. repanda. |
| Leaves larger, glossy. Involucres purplish, hardly shining | 2. B. Rangiora. |
1. B. repanda, Forst. Char. Gen. 46, t. 40.—A shrub or small tree 8–20 ft. high; branches stout, brittle, densely clothed with soft white tomentum. Leaves 4–12 in. long including the petiole, broadly oblong or ovate-oblong, irregularly lobed or sinuate, membranous, dull-green and glabrous above, clothed with milk-white tomentum beneath; petiole stout, 1–3 in. long. Panicles large, exceeding the leaves, often drooping. Heads small, ⅙ in. long; bracts linear-oblong, whitish, shining. Florets 10–12; female florets with the outer lip lobed or entire.—A. Cunn. Precur. n. 463; Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 163; Kirk, Students Fl. 336. Senecio Forsteri, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 148, t. 40. Cineraria repanda, Forst. Prodr. n. 295; A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 255.
North and South Islands: Abundant from the North Cape as far south as Kaikoura and Greymouth. Sea-level to 2500 ft. Pukapuka; Wharangitawhito. August–October.
A common plant in the northern portion of the colony. It is said to be poisonous to cattle and horses.
2. B. Rangiora, Buch. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiv. (1882) 357.—Very similar to the preceding, but rather smaller, seldom more than 12 or 14 ft. high, with stouter branches and larger leaves. Leaves 6–15 in. long including the petiole, more coriaceous and glossy, sometimes unequal at the base; petiole longer and stouter, 3–5 in. long. Involucral bracts purplish, hardly shining. Female florets with the outer ligule entire.—Kirk, Students' Fl. 336.
North and South Islands: Shores of Cook Strait, Buchanan! Kirk; Westport, Dr. Gaze! Greymouth, Helms! Rangiora. July–September.
I consider this to be a trivial variety of B. repanda, from which it differs in no important character. But as both Kirk and Buchanan treated it as a distinct species, and as they were supported by the late Dr. Mantell, who had it in cultivation for many years, I have retained it for the present. It appears to keep its characters, such as they are, under cultivation.
