Leptinella calcarea
Biostatus
Native
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Herbs - Dicotyledonous composites
Flower colours
Green, Yellow
Detailed description
Dioecious, perennial, tufted herb forming loose to compact mats. Rhizomes buried, pale, wiry and glabrous; branches uncommon, usually single at flowering nodes; leaves spirally arranged, 3-8 in clusters on short shoots covered in reduced scales, these set 5-20 mm apart. Roots slender and weak, up to 0.5 mm diameter. Leaves 1-pinnatifid, 10-40 x 3-6 mm, blade 10-40 mm, oblong to elliptic, thick, fleshy, and rigidly stiff, yellow-green (sometimes grey-green), usually moderately to densely covered in long woolly hairs, midrib prominently raised along ventral surface; pinnae 12-20 pairs, close-set and overlapping, cut to rhachis, broadly elliptic; teeth on pinnae closet-set, narrowly triangular, obtuse. Peduncle borne on short shoots, equal to leaves in length, 10-40 mm, ebracteate or with 1 bract, villous hairy. Pistillate capitula 3-5 mm diameter, widening to 10 mm in fruit; surface convex; involucre ureceolate; involcural bracts 20-40, usually unequally triseriate, broadly elliptic, green, villous, with a broad, scarious, brown-tipped margin; inner involucral bracts elongating after anthesis to enclose fruiting head; at maturity involcural bracts partialyl reflexing to expose fruit; florets 25-120, 2 mm long, curved, yellow-green; corolla more or less longer than wide, unequally toothed. Staminate heads 4-6 mm diameter; involucre hemispherical; involucral bracts 8-15 in 1-2-seriate, subequal rows; florets numerous. Cypsela 1.6 x 0.8 mm, brown, slightly compressed, initially pale, covered in a chartaceous membrane, maturity smooth.
Similar taxa
Perhaps closest to L. pusilla Hook.f. from which it is allopatric. L. pusilla, L. calcarea, L. intermedia (D.G.Lloyd) D.G.Lloyd et C.Webb and L. serrulata (D.G.Lloyd) D.G.Lloyd et C.Webb all possess deeply buried, pale and wiry, rhizomes bearing few or no leaves. Their short-shoots grow up from the rhizomes, and they usually have densely hairy leaves. L. calcarea differs from the other three species by its distinctly subfleshy to fleshy, stiffly rigid leaves which lack any brown pigmetation. From L. pusilla it differs by its rigid, densely hairy, rather than glabrous to hairy, fleshy yellow-green to grey-green, rather than purple-green to brown-green membranous leaves, bearing closely-set rather than widely separated, overlapping pinnae.
Distribution
Endemic. South Island, north-west Nelson from Cape Farewell south to Kahurangi Point.
Habitat
Coastal, on consolidated sand dunes, calcreous mudstones, limestones and conglomerate rock. A turf forming species occupying sites with minimal vegetation cover.
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.
2023 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: RR
Threats
A naturally uncommon, range restricted species which appears to be locally common within its only known habitats. There is no evidence that it has declined but most populations are rather small and coudl be at risk if current land use management practices in the area it occupies change
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Asteraceae
Synonyms
Cotula calcarea D.G.Lloyd
Endemic taxon
Yes
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Ecology
Flowering
August - November
Fruiting
September - January
Life cycle and dispersal
Papery cypselae are dispersed by wind and possibly attachment (Thorsen et al., 2009).
Propagation technique
Easily grown by division of whole plants. Fresh seed probably germinates easily but it is rarely available as most cultivated material is of a single sex-type, so seed is not formed. Does well in a free draining, fertile soil in full sun. An excelelnt rock garden plant.
Other information
Plant of the Month
This plant has been featured as a Plant of the Month – see Trilepidea: NZPCN newsletter for February 2009 for the full story.
Etymology
leptinella: From the Greek word leptos (meaning slender, thin or delicate), referring to the ovary
calcarea: From the Latin calx ‘limestone’, meaning growing on limestone
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.
LEPCAL
Chromosome number
2n = 104
Previous conservation statuses
2017 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: RR
2012 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: RR
2009 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon
2004 | Range Restricted
Referencing and citations
References and further reading
Lloyd, D.G. 1972: A revision of the New Zealand, Subantarctic, and South American species of Cotula, section Leptinella. New Zealand Journal of Botany 10: 277-372.
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
Fact sheet prepared for NZPCN by P.J. de Lange 31 August 2006. Description from Lloyd (1972) - as Cotula calcarea.
NZPCN Fact Sheet citation
Please cite as: de Lange, P.J. (Year at time of access): Leptinella calcarea Fact Sheet (content continuously updated). New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/leptinella-calcarea/ (Date website was queried)