Classification
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Celmisia semicordata Petrie, Trans. & Proc. Roy. Soc. New Zealand 46: 33 (1913 [1914])
Synonymy:
  • Celmisia coriacea var. semicordata (Petrie) Cheeseman, Man. New Zealand Fl., ed. 2, 950 (1925)
Vernacular Name(s):
silvery cotton plant
 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 (11)—25—(42) × (2.0)-4.2-(7) cm, more or less coriaceous, at first erect but soon becoming patent, lanceolate to oblong-ovate; upper surface regularly sulcate, more or less concolorous, masked by an obvious silver greenish (occasionally bronze) pellicle; lower surface densely covered in glistening appressed tomentum, midrib prominent; tip acute; margins entire, flat or moderately recurved; base more or less cuneate, occasionally abruptly narrowed" to the petiole. Petiole short. Sheath up to 12 × 4 cm, greenish or slightly purplish, 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 15 cm long, margins revolute; usually monocephalous but occasionally with several capitula especially in cultivated specimens. Ray florets 200-250, ligulate, the limb narrow-linear, white. Disc florets 400-450, 8-9 mm long, funneliform, yellow, tube with long eglandular biseriate hairs in lower half. Achene fusiform, strongly grooved, 3.5-8 mm long, glabrous or slightly hairy; hairs short, appressed, bifid. Pappus unequal, 5.5-8.5 mm long, of c. 40 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)
Number of subspecific taxa in New Zealand within Celmisia semicordata Petrie
CategoryNumber
Indigenous (Endemic)3
Total3
 Bibliography
Cheeseman, T.F. 1925: Manual of the New Zealand Flora. Edition 2. Government Printer, Wellington.
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.
Petrie, D. 1914 ("1913"): Descriptions of New Native Phanerogams. Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand 46: 32–39.