Leptinella pectinata subsp. villosa

Detailed description

Monoecious, creeping, glabrate to villous hairy, grey-green, perennial herb forming diffuse patches, or tight mats amongst tussocks and other herbs. Rhizomes at or near soil surface, stout, up to 2 mm diameter, somewhat wiry, dark, densely villous, glabrate, rarely glabrous; branches solitary, or in clusters of 4 radiating out from a flowering node, if solitary then arising if internodes are long; leaves initially clustered around shoot apex, often remaining crowded but sometimes spaced up to 20 mm apart. Short shoots absent. Roots extensive, wiry, much branched, up to 1 mm diameter. Leaves 1-pinnatifid, occasionally simple, 7-40 x 2-10 mm; blade up to 30 mm, elliptic, obovate, to broadly obovate, firmly coriaceous, dark green, sparsely to densely covered in greyish-white, villous hairs or glabrate, midrib not raised on ventral surface; pinnae 1-10 pairs, or absent, close-set or distant, cut to rhachis, linear to narrowly obovate, more or less cylindrical to flat, teeth usually absent, occasionally with 1-3 per pinna, these mostly on proximal margin, cut 1/2 across pinna, triangular, obtuse. Peduncles very much > leaves, 10-100 mm, ebracteate or rarely with 1 simply bract, desnely covered in villous hairs or glabrate. Capitula 4-8 mm diameter; involucre subcampanulate; involucral bracts 12-24, subequally 2- or more seriate, oblong, dark green to purple green, with 1-3 dark veins, with wide brown scarious margins, densely villous hairy to glabrate; pistillate flowers 12-200, 2.25-2.75 mm long, straight, yellow or yellow-red, often with 1-2 dark stripes along corolla and ovary; corolla much > than wide, dentition equal; staminate florets more numerous than pistillate. Cypsela 2.1 x 0.7 mm, golden-brown, compressed, biconvex, slightly to deeply wrinkled.