Pachycladon stellatum (Allan) Heenan & A.D.Mitch.

Polycarpic perennial herb, up to 34 cm tall; rootstock stout, up to 16 mm diam., sometimes branched, covered in old, fibrous, chaffy, petiole bases; rosette densely leafy. Rosette leaves coriaceous, dull, grey-green, often red-purple on petiole and abaxial surface. Lamina 20—80 × 5—10(— 19) mm, narrow-lanceolate, lanceolate, or oblanceolate, shallowly serrate with 4—8 pairs of teeth; apex acute to subacute; base attenuate. Petiole up to 55 mm long, up to 2 mm wide at narrowest point, base up to 4 mm wide. Hairs on leaves and inflorescence bifurcating and dendritic, white or sordid, harsh or scabrid; on lower petiole margin occasionally simple. Inflorescence 15-35 cm tall, compound, with terminal and lateral racemes, lateral racemes alternate and occasionally with secondary racemes. Cauline leaves subtending lateral raceme s and rarely lowermost flowers, 3 .5-55 × 1-3(-5) mm, similar to rosette leaves, becoming smaller and linear in distal parts, moderately to densely hairy; base cuneate to subauriculate. Racemes 6-20 cm long at fruiting, 10-40-flowered; rachis with sparse to dense covering of hairs, hairs particularly sparse in distal parts. Pedicels 4 .0-5 .5 mm long at flowering, 7-10(-15) mm long at fruiting, usually glabrous, suberect to erectopatent. Sepals 3.5—1.5 × 1.3-2.1 mm, ascending, green, oblong, with few hairs, often flushed pink in bud; margin broad, membranous, white; apex obtuse to subacute. Petals 6-7 × 3-4 mm, white; claw 2-3.5 mm long; limb broad elliptic to obovate, or short oblanceolate, 3.0-3.5 mm long; apex rounded; base attenuate to cuneate. Median stamen filaments 3.1-4.9 mm long; lateral stamen filaments 2.5-3.8 mm long; anthers 0.9-1.1 × 0.5-0.6 mm, white, introrse. Nectary annular, and almost surrounding the bases of the lateral stamens. Ovary 2.6- 4.1 × 0.5-0.8 mm, green, glabrous. Style 0.3-0.7 mm long. Stigma 0.4-0.5 mm wide. Siliques 30-60 × 1.3-1.6(-2.3) mm, linear, valves weakly keeled at base, I-veined, at maturity yellow-brown and often flushed red-brown. Septum intact, with or without a midvein. Funicle 0.3-0.5 mm long. Seeds 30-50 per locule, 1.1-1.4 mm long, 0.5-0.7 mm wide, 0.3-0.4 mm thick, oblong to narrowly ellipsoid, flattened, brown or red-brown; hilum basal; surface regular to irregular, reticulate; wing usually apical but sometimes decurrent on apical half of seed, 0.2–1.0 mm long at seed apex; radicle incumbent to accumbent, straight. FL Nov–Jan; FT Jan– Apr.

[Reproduced from Heenan & Garnock-Jones (1999, New Zealand J. Bot. 37: 235–241, as Cheesemania stellata (Allan) Heenan & Garn.-Jones ) with permission from The Royal Society of New Zealand.]