Brachyglottis rotundifolia var. ambigua
Biostatus
Native – Endemic taxon
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons
Simplified description
Large leathery shrub inhabiting coastal shrub in the central West Coast. Leaves leathery, 4–10cm long, widest part of leaf towards tip, dark green and glossy, whiteish underneath. Flowers a white furry body with a yellowish tip in loose leafy clusters at tips of twigs.
Flower colours
Yellow
Detailed description
Shrub or tree up to 3 m or more tall. Branches, stout, grooved; branchlets and inflorescence-branchlets clad in dense pale buff to whitish tomentum. Leaves less coriaceous, entire, broadly obovate to elliptic-oblong, midrib and main veins prominent below; glabrous above, clad in dense appressed tomentum below; lamina 70–150 x 30–60 mm on stout grooved petiole up to 50 mm long. Panicles up to 200 mm long, lower bracts foliaceous. Capitula campanulate, up to 10 mm diameter, discoid, on stout tomentose pedicels. Phyllaries linear, obtuse, coriaceous, woolly-tomentose on back. Female flowers few, disk-florets numerous. Achenes angled, 2.5 mm long, linear-oblong, glabrous or with sparse hispid hairs; pappus-hairs up to 6 mm long, rigid, barbellate.
Similar taxa
Brachyglottis rotundifolia var. rotundifolia which is a shrub to tree up to 6 m; has leaves which are obliquely broadly oblong to suborbicular (40–100 × 40–90 mm) and very coriaceous; and only found in the southern South Island, Stewart and Solander Islands.
Distribution
Endemic. South Island. Westland: Cape Foulwind to Barrytown.
Habitat
Coastal banks and scrub, inland low scrubland.
Current conservation status
The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2022-2023 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS) – more information about this can be found on the NZTCS website. This report includes replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Previous assessments can be found here.
Please note, threat classifications are often suggested by authors when publications fall between NZTCS assessment periods – these interim threat classification statuses has not been assessed by the NZTCS panel.
- Conservation status of vascular plants in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2023. 2024. Peter J. de Lange, Jane Gosden, Shannel P. Courtney, Alexander J. Fergus, John W. Barkla, Sarah M. Beadel, Paul D. Champion, Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Troy Makan and Pascale Michel Department of Conservation. Source: NZTCS and licensed by DOC for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
2017 | Threatened – Nationally Critical
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Asteraceae
Synonyms
Senecio rotundifolia var. ambigua Cheeseman, Senecio reinoldii var. ambiguus (Cheeseman) Allan
Endemic taxon
Yes
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Ecology
Flowering
December–January
Fruiting
January–February
Other information
Where To Buy
Not commercially available.
Etymology
brachyglottis: Name comes from the Greek words brachus meaning “short” and glottis meaning “the vocal apparatus of the larynx”
rotundifolia: Round leaf; from the Latin rotundus and folium
ambigua: From the Latin ambiguus ‘ambiguous, uncertain’
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
BRARVA
Chromosome number
2n = 60
Previous conservation statuses
2012 | Not Threatened
2009 | Not Threatened
2004 | Not Threatened
Referencing and citations
References and further reading
Allan, H. H. 1961. Flora of New Zealand. Vol. 1. Wellington: Government Printer. pp 754–755.
Attribution
Description adapted by M. Ward from Allan (1961).
Some of this factsheet information is derived from Flora of New Zealand Online and is used under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand licence.