Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Apiales Nakai
Family
Umbelliferae
Genus
Anisotome Hook.f.
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Anisotome pilifera (Hook.f.) Cockayne & Laing, Trans. & Proc. New Zealand Inst. 43: 366 (1911)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Ligusticum piliferum Hook.f., Handb. New Zealand Fl. 96 (1864)
 Description

Very robust, up to ± 6 dm. tall with very stout stock up to c. 5 cm. diam.; subalpine forms sts reduced to c. 15 cm. tall. Lvs on stout petioles up to ± 10 cm. long; sheaths narrow, membr., up to c. 4 cm. long. Lamina pinnate (5)–10–20–(30) × (3)–5–10 cm., us. narrow-oblong in outline. Pinnae 5–10–(12) pairs, sessile, coriac., dark green to glaucous above, paler below, close-set, often overlapping, to rather distant; about deltoid in outline; coarsely toothed to 2–3-lobed to pinnatifid or pinnatisect (on different plants); segs 1–2 cm. × 4–5 mm., ovate-oblong to linear-lanceolate; hair-processes up to c. 4 mm. long or sts reduced to acicles. Bracts with open sheaths ± 4 cm. long, narrowed to foliaceous lamina up to c. 5 cm. long. Umbels compound, upper ones us. approximate, (3)–4–5–(10) cm. diam., on stout peduncles 4–8 cm. long; bracts foliaceous. Primary rays 15–20, very stout, grooved, unequal, up to c. 4 cm. long; involucral bracts linear to lanceolate-oblong, up to 2.5 cm. long. Secondary rays short, overtopped by broad hair-tipped involucral bracts ± 1 cm. long. Fls. c. 5 mm. diam.; calyx-lobes minute, blunt; petals white, ovate-oblong, us. only slightly incurved, ± 2.5 mm. long. Fr. ovate-oblong in outline, 3–4–(5) 3 mm.; mericarps us. 3-winged; styles slender, ± 1·5 mm. long.

[From: Allan (1961) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 1.]

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Phenology

Flowering: Nov.–Mar.; Fruiting: Jan.–Apr.

 Bibliography
Cockayne, L.; Laing, R. M. 1911 ("1910"): The Mount Arrowsmith district: A Study in Physiography and Plant Ecology. Part II: Plant Ecology. Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 43: 342–378.
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Barkla J.W.; Courtney, S.P.; Champion, P.D.; Perrie, L.R.; Beadel, S.N.; Ford, K.A.; Breitwieser, I.; Schönberger, I.; Hindmarsh-Walls, R.; Heenan, P.B.; Ladley, K. 2018: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017. New Zealand Threat Classification Series. No. 22. [Declining]
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Champion, P.D.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Norton, D.A.; Hitchmough, R.A. 2013: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012. New Zealand Threat Classification Series 3. Department of Conservation, Wellington. [Not Threatened]
Hooker, J.D. 1864: Handbook of the New Zealand Flora: a systematic description of the native plants of New Zealand and the Chatham, Kermadec's, Lord Auckland's, Campbell's and Macquarie's Islands. Part I. Reeve, London.