Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Asterales Link
Family
Compositae Giseke
Genus
Leucogenes Beauverd
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Leucogenes grandiceps (Hook.f.) Beauverd, Bull. Soc. Bot. Genève, sér. 2, 2: 243 (1910)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Gnaphalium grandiceps Hook.f., Handb. New Zealand Fl. 154 (1864) – as Gnaphalium (Helichrysum) grandiceps
  • ≡ Helichrysum grandiceps (Hook.f.) Kirk, Stud. Fl. New Zealand 313 (1899)
Vernacular Name(s):
South Island edelweiss
 Description

Stock rather stout, woody; stems decumbent, woody at base, branches ascending; basal lvs not in subrosettes. Lvs densely to somewhat laxly imbricate, spreading, sts recurved, 5–10 × 2–4 mm., often apiculate, 3–5-nerved at base, obovate-cuneate, clad on both surfaces in appressed white to pale buff hairs. Peduncles hardly differentiated from branchlets. Capitula 5–15, congested into dense glomerules 9–15 mm. diam., subtended by up to 15 densely woolly lvs up to 1 cm. long, forming a distinct white ray. Phyll. linear, acute, c. 5 mm. long, scarious with basal stiffening. Achenes c. 1 mm. long, pappus-hairs 3–4 mm. long.

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

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Phenology

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

 Bibliography
Beauverd, G. 1910: Contribution à l'Étude des Composées. Suite V: Recherches sur la tribu des Gnaphaliées. Raoulia, Psychrophyton, Ewartia, Leucogenes and Leontopodium. Bulletin de la Société Botanique de Genève, sér. 2, 2: 207–260.
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]
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.
Kirk,T. 1899: The Students' Flora of New Zealand and the Outlying Islands. Government Printer, Wellington, N.Z.
Molloy, B. P. J. 1995: Two new species of Leucogenes (Inuleae: Asteraceae) from New Zealand, and typification of L. grandiceps. New Zealand Journal of Botany 33(1): 53–63.