North Island: From the North Cape southwards, plentiful near the coast. South Island: D'Urville Island, Bryant; Queen Charlotte and Pelorus Sounds, Rutland! MacMahon. Sea-level to 1000 ft. February–May.
5. PLEUROPHYLLUM, Hook. f.
Tall handsome silky robust perennial herbs. Leaves mostly radical, large, entire, many-nerved. Heads large, racemed at the top of the stem. Involucre broadly campanulate or hemispherical; bracts in 2–3 series, herbaceous. Receptacle flat, pitted. Ray-florets female, ligulate, in 1–3 series; ligule long or short. Disc-florets many, regular, tubular, campanulate at the mouth, 4–5-toothed. Anthers shortly and obtusely auricled at the base. Style-branches of the disc-florets flattened, with lanceolate tips. Achenes compressed, striated, densely setose. Pappus-hairs in 2–3 series, copious, rigid, scabrid, unequal.
The genus is limited to the three following species, and is confined to the outlying islands to the south of New Zealand. It is very closely allied to Celmisia, from which it is separated rather by the very distinct and peculiar habit than by any structural characters of importance.
| Ray-florets with a conspicuous ray. Leaves large, 6–18 in., sessile by a broad base | 1. P. speciosum. |
| Ray-florets short, inconspicuous. Leaves large, 1–4 ft., petiolate, green above | 2. P. criniferum. |
| Ray-florets short, inconspicuous. Leaves smaller, 6–12 in., petiolate, white and silvery on both surfaces | 3. P. Hookeri. |
1. P. speciosum, Hook. f. Fl. Antarct. i. 31, t. 22, 23.—Leaves chiefly radical, spreading horizontally all round the base of the stem, 6–18 in. long, 4–10 in. broad, broadly ovate or obovate, sessile by a broad base, thick and coriaceous, quite entire, furnished with 15–20 stout longitudinal parallel ribs, villous and tomentose beneath, above slightly setose, with the bristles more or less mixed with moniliform hairs. Cauline leaves few, oblong-lanceolate. Flowering-stems several, 1½–3 ft. high, ending in a raceme of 8–20 heads; bracts numerous, linear. Heads 1½–2½ in. diam.; disc-florets dark-purple; ray-florets with a conspicuous ligule, light-purple or almost whitish. Achenes densely silky-strigose. Pappus-hairs not thickened at the tips.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 129; Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. [[Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute/Volume 23/Article 47#433|xxiii. (1891) 433; Students Fl. 211.
Auckland and Campbell Islands: Abundant from sea-level to nearly 1000 ft. December–January.
A truly noble plant, at once recognised by the large purple heads with conspicuous spreading rays.
2. P. criniferum, Hook. f. Fl. Antarct. i. 32, t. 24, 25.—Radical leaves variable in size and shape, 1–4 ft. long, 4–12 in. broad, orbicular-ovate or broadly oblong to ovate-lanceolate or obovate-lanceolate, acute, narrowed into a sheathing petiole of variable length, firm but membranous, clothed with thin white tomentum
