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  4. Celmisia similis

Celmisia similis

Denniston Plateau.<br>Photographer: Jane Gosden, Date taken: 29/10/2014, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0'>CC BY-NC-SA</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Denniston Plateau.<br>Photographer: Jane Gosden, Date taken: 29/10/2013, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0'>CC BY-NC-SA</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Denniston Plateau.<br>Photographer: Jane Gosden, Date taken: 29/10/2014, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0'>CC BY-NC-SA</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Denniston Plateau.<br>Photographer: Jane Gosden, Date taken: 29/10/2013, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0'>CC BY-NC-SA</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
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Biostatus

Native – Endemic taxon

Category

Vascular

Structural class

Herbs - Dicotyledonous composites

Flower colours

White, Yellow

Detailed description

Small slender cushion-forming subshrub with branchlets up to 60 mm long. Living leaves tending to be near the tips of the branchlets and sometimes forming small rosettes. Leaf lamina linear, apiculate, rigid, reflexed at the base, 10-20 × l-2 mm; upper surface covered with a silvery to grey pellicle; lower surface with a loose scurfy grey tomentum; sheath ± 10 mm long. Scape 40.0-60.0 × 1.5mm, reddish, clad in deciduous eglandular hairs. Involucral bracts erect, up to 9 mm long, margins fringed with short hairs, abaxial surface bearing many eglandular hairs. Receptacle obconic and alveolate. Capitulum 10-15 mm diameter. Ray florets ± 10 mm long, tube glabrous. In disc florets, corolla tube gradually narrowed from apex to base, glabrous; stamen tip acute, anther tails short; style bifid, the arms differentiated into a lower parallel-sided papillose portion and an upper attenuate portion bearing long collecting hairs. Pappus bristles unequal, up to 4.5 mm long, with distant or sometimes moderately close fine teeth. Achene 1.5-2.0 × 0.4 mm, fusiform, compressed, weakly ribbed and clad in bifid hairs.

Similar taxa

Similar to C. laricifolia from which C. similis differs in the darker distinctly red colour of the scapes, and by the stiffer and wider leaves which are silvery and pellicled on the upper surface (those of C. laricifolia being bronze-green and glabrous). Another distinction is that in fresh specimens the leaves of C. similis tend to be clustered towards the branchlet tips, whereas those of C. laricifolia are usually fairly evenly distributed along the branchlets

Distribution

Endemic. South Island: North-West Nelson, north of the Buller Valley and west of the Motueka Valley and tributaries.

Habitat

Alpine and subalpine. Usually associated with with Chionochloa australis, Celmisia traversii, and C. spectabilis.

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 | Not Threatened

Jump to previous conservation statuses

Detailed taxonomy

Family

Asteraceae

Authority

Celmisia similis Given

Synonyms

None (first described in 1969)

Endemic taxon

Yes

Endemic genus

No

Endemic family

No

Ecology

Flowering

December - February

Fruiting

January - April

Life cycle and dispersal

Pappate cypselae are dispersed by wind (Thorsen et al., 2009).

Propagation technique

One of the few Celmisia that is easily grown in most climates though it dislikes high humidity. Best grown in a moist, free draining soil, within some afternoon shade. Plants can be raised from division but are best grown from fresh seed.

Other information

Where To Buy

Not Commercially Available

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

similis: Similar to another species

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.

CELSIM

Chromosome number

2n = 108

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 | Not Threatened

2012 | Not Threatened

2009 | Not Threatened

2004 | Not Threatened

Jump to current conservation status

Referencing and citations

References and further reading

Given, D.R. 1969: Taxonomic notes on the genus Celmisia (Compositae). New Zealand Journal of Botany 7: 389-399.

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: 285-309

Attribution

Description based on Given (1980)

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