Celmisia coriacea
Common name
Fiordland mountain daisy
Synonyms
Celmisia lanceolata Cockayne
Family
Asteraceae
Flora category
Vascular – Native
Endemic taxon
Yes
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Herbs - Dicotyledonous composites
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.
CELCOR
Chromosome number
2n = 108
Current conservation status
The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2017 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS). This report includes a statistical summary and brief notes on changes since 2012 and replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Authors: By Peter J. de Lange, Jeremy R. Rolfe, John W. Barkla, Shannel P. Courtney, Paul D. Champion, Leon R. Perrie, Sarah M. Beadel, Kerry A. Ford, Ilse Breitwieser, Ines Schönberger, Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Peter B. Heenan and Kate Ladley.
2012 | Not Threatened
Previous conservation statuses
2009 | Not Threatened
2004 | Not Threatened
Distribution
Endemic. South Island: Fiordland from about Nancy Sound to near Puysegur Point, generally most abundant in western Fiordland but extending east into Southland via the Hunter Mountains, the Hump and Longwood Range.
Habitat
Montane to alpine. A common component of wet grassland and herbfield especially near timber line where it forms large patches in boggy grass-rush communities intermixed with low scrub.
Features
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 160-400 x 25-55 mm, coriaceous, older leaves somewhat patent, lanceolate or occasionally oblong; upper surface sulcate, somewhat rugose in some plants, bronze-green with a conspicuous orange stripe along the midrib, pellicle bronze, obvious, and deciduous in old leaves; lower surface densely covered in glistening appressed tomentum, midrib prominent; tip acute; margins entire, often slightly revolute; base more or less cuneate, occasionally abruptly narrowed to the petiole. Petiole short. Sheath up to 130 x 40 mm, yellowish, clad in floccose white hairs. Scape densely clad in floccose white hairs, stout, up to 450 mm long; bracts several in upper half, erect, up to 80 mm long, strongly revolute; monocephalous. Ray florets 160-200, ligulate, the limb narrow-linear, white. Disc florets 200-250, 7-8 mm long, funneliform, yellow, tube with long eglandular biseriate hairs in lower half. Achene fusiform to obovoid, strongly grooved, 4.5-5.0 mm long, moderately to densely hairy; hairs short, appressed, bifid. Pappus unequal, up to 6 mm long, of c.30 barbellate bristles.
Similar taxa
Distinguished from C. armstrongii, with which it apparently does not grow, by the leaves which are > 20 mm wide. Celmisia semicordata has long been confused with C. coriacea - from C. semicordata, C. coriacea (a Fiordland and western Southland endemic) differs by the presence of an orange-brown medial stripe on the leaf, and by the more or less evenly hairy achenes (rather than glabrous or with hairs confined to the upper half of the achene).
Flowering
November - February
Flower colours
White, Yellow
Fruiting
January - April
Life cycle
Pappate cypselae are dispersed by wind (Thorsen et al., 2009).
Propagation technique
Easily grown in a shaded site, planted within a permanently moist, free draining, acidic soil. Dislikes humidity and will not tolerate drying out. Best grown from fresh seed which should be sown immediately or stratified in a fridge or freezer for 1-3 months
Etymology
celmisia: Apparently named after Kelmis, one of Idaean Dactyls, a group of skilled mythical beings associated with the Mother Goddess Rhea in Greek mythology. Kelmis, whose name means ‘casting’, was a blacksmith and childhood friend of Zeus, son of Rhea and later king of the gods. In Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’, Kelmis is described as offending Zeus who turned him into adamant so he was as hard as a tempered blade
coriacea: Leathery
Where To Buy
Not commercially available.
Attribution
Description from Given (1984)
References and further reading
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.
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: 11(4): 285-309.