Heads 8–15 together, congested into a dense bracteaie glomerule ½–1 in. diam.; each head about ⅙ in. across; bracts 10–20, spreading, ¼–¾ in. long, oblong or ovate-oblong, obtuse or subacute, most densely woolly. Involucral bracts in 2 series, linear-lanceolate, woolly on the back, erect, scarious, shining. Florets numerous; females few, in 1 series. Achene silky. Pappus-hairs few, stout, scabrid, slightly thickened above.—Kirk, Students' Fl. 313. Gnaphalium Colensoi, Hook. f. Handb N.Z. Fl. 154.
North Island: Mount Hikurangi (East Cape), Colenso! Adams and Petrie! Ruahine Mountains, Colenso! Petrie! Hill! Tongariro, Hill! Tararua Range, H. H. Travers! Budden. South Island: Nelson—Raglan Range and mountains above the Wairau Gorge, T.F.C.; Tarndale, Sinclair; mountains above the Rainbow River, Bryant. 4000–6000 ft. January–February.
A beautiful little plant, with precisely the aspect of the edelweiss of the European Alps (Leontopodium alpinum), but with flower-heads of different structure.
9. H. grandiceps, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 154.—Densely tufted. Seems much branched, decumbent and woody at the base, 2–8 in. high; branches ascending or erect. Leaves densely imbricate, spreading or recurved, ¼–⅓ in. long, oblong- or obovate-spathulate, obtuse, flat or concave, clothed on both surfaces with appressed silvery tomentum. Peduncles composed of the elongated tips of the branches, leafy throughout, but the leaves usually not so closely imbricate. Heads congested into a terminal bracteate glomerule surrounded by leafy bracts, as in H. Leontopodium, but bracts rather shorter and broader. Involucral bracts in 2 series, linear, tomentose on the back, with brown scarious tips. Florets numerous; females few, in 1 series. Achene silky. Pappus-hairs few, rather stout, thickened above.—Kirk, Students' Fl. 313.
South Island: Not uncommon in mountain districts from Nelson to Otago. 2500–5000 ft. December–January.
Allied to H. Leontopodium, but amply distinct in the shorter and broader usually recurved leaves, more densely leafy peduncles, shorter and broader bracts, and smaller glomerules.
10. H. glomeratum, Benth. and Hook. f. Gen. Plant. ii. 311.—A much-branched shrub 3–8 ft. high; branches spreading, slender, flesuous, grooved, tomentose above. Leaves alternate, very variable in size, ¼–1½ in. long, orbicular or broadly ovate or ovate-spathulate, obtuse or minutely apiculate, suddenly narrowed into a short slender petiole, quite entire, flat; upper surface glabrous, minutely reticulate; beneath clothed with white cottony tomentum. Heads in terminal or lateral sessile or stalked subglobose corymbs, small, 110 in. diam. Involucral bracts few, in about 3 series, oblong, obtuse, scarious, woolly at the base. Florets 8–12, 2 or 3 of them female. Achene puberulous, with a thickened
