Classification
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Celmisia coriacea (G.Forst.) Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. I. (Fl. Antarct.) Part I, 36 (1844)
Synonymy:
  • Aster coriaceus G.Forst., Fl. Ins. Austr. 56 (1786)
  • Celmisia coriacea (G.Forst.) Raoul, Ann. Sci. Nat., Bot. sér. 3, 2: 119 (1844) nom. illeg., non Celmisia coriacea (G.Forst.) Hook.f. 1844
  • = Celmisia lanceolata Cockayne, Trans. New Zealand Inst. 44: 51 (1912)
Vernacular Name(s):
Large mountain daisy; Matua-tikumu; Silvery cotton daisy; Tikumu
 Description

Stout woody-based herb with branchlets arising from a multicipital stock, usually hidden; living leaves in large rosettes at the tips of branchlets, the whole plant forming an irregular sward-like patch; leaf sheaths densely imbricate and compacted, forming a pseudo-stem. Leaf lamina (16)-28-(40) × (2.5)-3.5-(5.5) cm, coriaceous, older leaves somewhat patent, lanceolate or occasionally oblong; upper surface sulcate, somewhat rugose in some plants, bronze-green with a conspicuous orange stripe along the midrib, pellicle bronze, obvious, and deciduous in old leaves; lower surface densely covered in glistening appressed tomentum, midrib prominent; tip acute; margins entire, often slightly revolute; base more or less cuneate, occasionally abruptly narrowed to the petiole. Petiole short. Sheath up to 13 × 4 cm, yellowish, clad in floccose white hairs. Scape densely clad in floccose white hairs, stout, up to 45 cm long; bracts several in upper half, erect, up to 8 cm long, strongly revolute; monocephalous. Ray florets 160-200, ligulate, the limb narrow-linear, white. Disc florets 200-250, 7-8 mm long, funneliform, yellow, tube with long eglandular biseriate hairs in lower half. Achene fusiform to obovoid, strongly grooved, 4.5-5 mm long, moderately to densely hairy; hairs short, appressed, bifid. Pappus unequal, up to 6 mm long, of c. 30 barbellate bristles.

[Reproduced from Given (1980, New Zealand J. Bot. 18: 127-140) with permission from The Royal Society of New Zealand.]

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Bibliography
Cockayne, L. 1912: Descriptions of some New Species of New Zealand Plants. Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 44: 50–52.
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. [Not Threatened]
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]
Forster, J.G.A. 1786: Florulae Insularum Australium Prodromus. Dietrich, Göttingen.
Given, D. R. 1980: A taxonomic revision of Celmisia coriacea (Forst.f.) Hook.f. and its immediate allies (Astereae -- Compositae). New Zealand Journal of Botany 18: 127–140.
Hooker, J.D. 1844–1845: The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror in the Years 1839–1843, under the command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross. I. Flora Antarctica. Part I. Botany of Lord Auckland’s Group and Campbell’s Island. Reeve, Brothers, London.
Raoul, E. 1844: Choix de plantes de la Nouvelle-Zélande. Recueillies et décrites par M.E. Raoul. Annales des Sciences Naturelles; Botanique sér. 3, 2: 113–123.