A very handsome plant, distinguished from O. operina by the larger size, narrower and longer leaves with the veins evident beneath, large foliaceous bracts, and larger heads with deep-purple disc-florets. The flowers are highly fragrant.
6. O. Traillii, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 372.—A shrub or small tree 10–15 ft. high or more; branches stout, densely clothed with soft white tomentum. Leaves crowded at the tips of the branches, spreading, 3–6 in. long, 1–1½ in. broad, lanceolate or narrow obovate-lanceolate, acuminate, gradually narrowed into a short broad petiole, very thick and coriaceous, glabrous above or slightly cottony when young, clothed with white tomentum beneath; margins irregularly doubly crenate-dentate. Racemes terminal, erect, 4–10 in. long, 3–8-headed; bracts large, leafy, 1–2 in. long; rhachis, peduncles, and under-surface of bracts white with appressed tomentum. Heads 1 in. diam.; involucral scales in 2–3 series, linear, scarious, villous at the tips. Ray-florets shortly ligulate, white; disc-florets violet-purple. Achenes linear, grooved, silky.—Forest Fl. t. 142; Students' Fl. 265.
Stewart Island: Near the sea in the southern part of the island, rare and local, Kirk! November–December.
A very fine plant, closely allied to O. Colensoi, but easily separated by the narrower leaves and rayed flower-heads.
7. O. Colensoi, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 115, t. 29.—A stout closely branched shrub 4–10 ft. high, more rarely forming a small tree 15–30 ft. or more, with a trunk 12–24 in. diam. Leaves spreading, variable in size and shape, 2–6 in. long, obovate or obovateoblong to oblong-lanceolate or obovate-lanceolate, acute or rarely obtuse, narrowed into a short stout petiole, excessively thick and coriaceous, acutely irregularly serrate or doubly serrate, glabrous and shinitig above when mature, cottony when young, under-surface clothed with dense white appressed tomentum. Eacemes several at the tips of the branches, tomentose, 3–8 in. long, bearing 4–10 pedicelled heads; bracts loosely placed. Heads ⅔–1 in. diam., discoid, dark brownish-purple; involucral scales in 1–2 series, linear, glabrous or villous at the tips. Florets all tubular; female in a single row, corolla usually 3-lobed; hermaphrodite broader, €ampanulate above. Achenes grooved, silky.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 124; Kirk, Forest Fl. 102; Students' Fl. 265.
North Island: Mount Hikurangi, Ruahine Mountains, Tararua Mountains, alt. 3000–5500 ft. South Island: Common on the mountains on the western side of the Island, descending to sea-level in the sounds of the southwest coast. Stewart Island: Abundant from sea-level to the tops of the hills. Tupari. December–January.
A very handsome plant. On the mountains it usually forms a densely branched shrub, but at low levels on Stewart Island it attains the dimensions of a small tree.
