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  4. Celmisia vespertina

Celmisia vespertina

Seeding, Mungo River upper valley, West Coast.<br>Photographer: Dave Toole, Date taken: 04/01/2021, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Birch Hill Stream, Mt Cook, January.<br>Photographer: John Smith-Dodsworth, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
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Biostatus

Native – Endemic taxon

Category

Vascular

Structural class

Herbs - Dicotyledonous composites

Flower colours

White, Yellow

Detailed description

Woody-based perennial herb arising from a multicipital stock. Leaf lamina linear, rigid but recurved, 50-150 × 3-5 mm; upper surface grooved, dark green, clad in a thick pellicle which becomes golden on drying; lower surface clad in thick appressed white tomentum, midrib prominent; margins entire, often revolute. Sheath 30-60 mm long, membranous, yellow-orange and clad in a thin pellicle. Scape 100-150 mm × 2-3 mm, bracts few. Involucral bracts erect, linear-oblong to subulate, acute, up to 12 mm long, inner narrower than outer; margins fringed with long white hairs, particularly near the base; surface almost glabrous; venation simple. Receptacle obconic, upper surface alveolate. Ray florets up to 20 mm long, limb linear and glabrous, tube narrow with a few eglandular hairs near top. In disc florets, corolla tube gradually narrowed from apex to base, glabrous or sparsely hairy with long biseriate hairs; stamen tip acute, anther tails short; style bifid, the arms differentiated into a lower parallel-sided papillose portion and an upper short-triangular portion bearing short collecting hairs. Pappus bristles unequal, up to 4 mm long, with closely spaced short teeth. Achene 2.0-3.0 × 0.5 mm, fusiform, compressed, strongly ribbed and clad in bifid hairs.

Similar taxa

Could be confused with Celmisia insignis a Marlborough endemic from which it differs its smaller achenes that are covered in bifid hairs rather than glabrous, by its shorter pappus, by the disc florets which have fewer corolla hairs and by its shorter, darker green and more distinctly grooved leaves. In addition, Celmisia insignis lacks the distinctive pellicle characterising dried specimens of C. vespertina. The species is similar to C. petriei and C. polyvena from both of which it differs by its intermediate size and leaf and by its distinctive pellicle and sheath colour.

Distribution

Endemic. South Island: Mostly west of the Main Divide of the Southern Alps, from near the Taramakau Valley southwards to near Mount Aspiring. Otherwise known in the east only from the Ben Ohau Range

Habitat

Alpine grassland and associated fell field

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 | Qualifiers: DPS, DPT

Jump to previous conservation statuses

Detailed taxonomy

Family

Asteraceae

Authority

Celmisia vespertina Given

Synonyms

None (first described in 1969)

Endemic taxon

Yes

Endemic genus

No

Endemic family

No

Ecology

Flowering

December - February

Fruiting

January - March

Life cycle and dispersal

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

Propagation technique

Unknown.

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

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.

CELVES

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 | Qualifiers: DP

2012 | Not Threatened

2009 | Not Threatened

2004 | Not Threatened

Jump to current conservation status

Regional conservation statuses

Otago: 2024 | Regionally Not Threatened

The regional threat classification system leverages off the national assessments in the NZTCS, providing information relevant for the regional context. Otago conservation status information is sourced from the “Regional conservation status of indigenous vascular plants in Otago” Jarvie S et al. (2024) report.

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 (1969)

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