Brachyglottis stewartiae
Biostatus
Native – Endemic taxon
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons
Simplified description
Large spreading grey-green shrub inhabiting coastal forest of southern South Island islands. Twigs brittle and bearing leaf scars. Leaves 7-18cm long, narrow, rolled, thin, shiny grey-green, whiteish underneath, margin wavy. Flowers 2cm wide with many radiating narrow yellow petals, clustered together.
Flower colours
Yellow
Detailed description
Shrub or tree up to 6 m or more tall. Branchlets, spreading stout, clad in persistent leaf-bases. Leaves close-set, subcoriaceous, 70-180 x 20-40 mm, ovate to elliptic-lanceolate, acute to acuminate, narrowed to broad appressed base, glabrous above (dark green), clad below in appressed thin white tomentum; veinlets becoming evident and glabrous when old. Inflorescence terminal in short dense panicles; pedicels densely glandular-pubescent, upper bracts linear. Capitula up to 20 mm diameter; phyllaries narrow-oblong, obtuse, glandular-pubescent on backs; ray-florets 10-15, ligules yellow, narrow, contorted. Achenes approximately 2 mm long, narrow-oblong, grooved, sparsely pubescent, becoming glabrous; pappus-hairs up to 5 mm. long, barbellate.
Similar taxa
Brachyglottis huntii, which has young leaves with fulvous tomentum on upper surface becoming almost glabrous with maturity giving a paler green appearance; generally smaller leaves (50-100 x 20-30 mm); flowers with more ray florets (15-20). Geographically these two species do not overlap (see that species’ distribution).
Distribution
Endemic. Stewart Island. Including Snares, Solander and Herekopare islets of the Foveaux Strait.
Habitat
Sheltered coastal shrub forest. Prefers sheltered eastern slopes.
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.
- 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.
2023 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: RR
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Synonyms
Senecio stewartiae J.B.Armstr., Senecio muelleri Kirk
Endemic taxon
Yes
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Ecology
Flowering
December - February
Fruiting
January - March
Life cycle and dispersal
Pappate achenes are dispersed by wind (Thorsen et al., 2009).
Other information
Etymology
brachyglottis: Name comes from the Greek words brachus meaning “short” and glottis meaning “the vocal apparatus of the larynx”
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.
BRASTE
Chromosome number
2n = 60
Previous conservation statuses
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.
- 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 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: RR, Sp, St
2012 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: RR, Sp
2009 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: DP
2004 | Range Restricted
Referencing and citations
References and further reading
Allan, H. H. 1961. Flora of New Zealand. Vol. 1. Wellington: Government Printer. pg. 750.
Hay, C. H., Warham, J., & Fineran, B. A. 2004. The vegetation of The Snares, islands south of New Zealand, mapped and discussed. New Zealand Journal of Botany, 42(5), 861-872.
Thorsen, M. J.; Dickinson, K. J. M.; Seddon, P. J. 2009. Seed dispersal systems in the New Zealand flora. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 2009 Vol. 11 No. 4 pp. 285-309
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.