Aeonium arboreum (L.) Webb & Berthel.

Perennial or monocarpic; stems trunk-like, 20- c. 70 cm high, 1–2–(5) cm diam., not branched or with few to many lateral branches towards base, with numerous narrow, brown, elongated lf scars. Rosettes terminal, usually 7–20 cm diam. on main shoots, smaller on lateral branches, flattened except in summer. Outer rosette lvs to 8–(11) × 3–(4) cm, 2–3 mm thick, oblanceolate to obovate or obovate-spathulate, green or occasionally purple, glabrous and ± flat on both surfaces; margins ciliate or ciliolate, mostly green, sometimes red towards the mucronate apex. Flowering shoots terminal, either the whole plant or the stem bearing the infl. dying after flowering; axis stout, tall and erect, usually finely covered with very short glandular hairs, very rarely glabrate, with leaflike bracts usually deciduous by peak flowering. Infl. a broadly ovoid-pyramidal panicle, rounded at the top, usually 10–18 × 6–13 cm; fls densely arranged, not obviously secund on branches. Calyx lobes 1.5–3 mm long, puberulent with very short glandular hairs, lanceolate, narrow- to broad-triangular. Petals (7)–8–11, 6–9 × 1.5–2.5 mm, linear or linear-oblong to ± lanceolate-ovate, usually golden, rarely medium yellow. Stamens ± golden, the inner whorl 5–8.5 mm long, the outer whorl usually slightly shorter. Carpels greenish yellow. Scales (0.5)–0.8–1.2 mm long, ± square to rectangular or cuneate, truncate, erose or emarginate at apex. Seeds c. 0.5 mm long, narrowly ellipsoid, longitudinally ridged.

[From: Webb et al. (1988) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 4.]

Flowering: Jul.–Oct.