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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.
2. Geum, Linn
2. Geum, Linn.
Perennial herbs. Radical leaves. crowded, often rosulate, pinnate or pinnatisect; leaflets toothed or incised, the terminal one often much larger than the others; stem-leaves usually small and bract-like. Flowers in a terminal corymbose panicle or solitary. Calyx persistent; lobes 5, usually alternating with 5 bracteoles. Petals 5. Stamens numerous, crowded. Carpels many; ovules solitary, erect; style terminal, filiform, elongating much after flowering, bent at or below the end. Achenes numerous, compressed, crowded on a dry receptacle, each one terminated by the persistent elongated naked or plumose style.
A genus comprising about 35 species, spread through the temperate and cold regions of both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. One of the New Zealand species is widely distributed, another occurs in temperate South America, the rest are endemic.
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* Achenes villous. Flowers white except in 1. Stem leafy, 2–3 ft. high. Flowers yellow 1. G. urbanum. Leaves chiefly radical, 3–5 in. long. Panicles few-flowered. Styles longer than the achenes 2. G. parviflorum. Leaves all radical, ¾–1½ in. Flowers small, in 3–5-flowered racemes. Styles shorter than the achenes 3. G. sericeum. Leaves all radical, 1–3 in. Flowers solitary, large, ¾ in. diam. Styles long 4. G. uniflorum. ** Achenes glabrous. Flowers small, white. 3–6 in. high. Flowers in cymose panicles 5. G. leiospermum. 1–2 in. high. Flowers solitary 6. G. pusillum. G. alpinum, Buch. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xix. (1887) 216, is quite unknown to me, and there are no specimens in his herbarium. The original description is vague and insufficient, and the name had far better be dropped.
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G. urbanum, Linn. Sp. Plant. n. 501, var. strictum.—An erect sparingly branched herb 1–3 ft. high, usually softly pubescent, or villous in all its parts. Radical leaves very variable in size, 4–18 in. long including the petiole, pinnate; leaflets 3–5 pairs with much smaller ones intermixed, 1–3 in. long, ovate or obovate, cuneate at the base, sessile, variously toothed lobed or pinnatifid. Cauline leaves few, smaller, with fewer and more sharply toothed leaflets, sessile or nearly so; stipules leafy, coarsely toothed or lobed. Flowers ½–¾ in. diam., yellow, few together in a loose terminal panicle; peduncles slender, erect. Calyx-lobes ovate, acuminate, reflexed in fruit. Petals obovate, exceeding the calyx. Achenes very numerous, forming a dense oblong head, spreading and recurved, hispid with long silky hairs; awn long, hooked at the tip.—Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 55; Kirk, Students' Fl. 128. G. magellanicum, Comm. ex Pers. Syn. ii. 57; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 55. North and South Islands: Not uncommon from the Paparata Valley and Waikato River southward. Sea-level to nearly 3000 ft. November–January. The New Zealand variety has a wide distribution in the Southern Hemisphere, and is found in some parts of Asia as well. It differs from the European G. urbanum principally in the taller and more robust habit and larger flowers. |
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G. parviflorum, Sm. in Rees Cyclop. v. n. 12.—An erect or spreading perennial herb 4–18 in. high, everywhere clothed with silky or villous hairs, sometimes almost shaggy; rootstock stout, woody. Radical leaves 2–5 in. long, pinnate; terminal leaflet very large, ¾–2 in. diam., rounded-reniform, obscurely 3–5-lobed, crenate, hairy on both surfaces; lateral leaflets 4–8 pairs, all minute, deeply cut and lobed. Cauline leaves or bracts few, small, deeply toothed. Panicles lax, few-flowered; pedicels long, slender. Flowers ½ in. diam., white. Calyx-lobes broadly ovate, obtuse or subacute. Petals broad, obtuse, longer than the calyx. Achenes very numerous, spreading, stipitate, clavate, villous; style slender, page 130 |
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P. anserina, Linn. Sp. Plant. 495.—Rootstock tufted, giving off long creeping runners rooting at the nodes. Leaves all radical, numerous, 2–6 in. long, unequally pinnate, green and glabrous or slightly silky above, white with appressed silvery tomentum beneath; leaflets numerous, ⅓–1 in. long, oblong or obovate or rounded, alternate ones often minute, deeply and sharply toothed or incised. Peduncles from the rootstock or rooting nodes, 2–6 in. long, 1-flowered. Flowers ½–1 in. diam., yellow. Calyx silky and villous; lobes lanceolate or oblong; bracteoles lobed and cut. Petals obovate. Achenes glabrous or nearly so; receptacle villous.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 54; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 54; Kirk, Students' Fl. 131. Var. b, anserinoides.—Leaflets smaller, ¼–½ in. long, sessile or petioled.—P. anserinoides, Raoul, Choix, 28, North and South Islands, Chatham Islands: Common in moist places from the Auckland Isthmus southwards, ascending to nearly 3000 ft. Silver-weed. December–January. The typical form of the species is almost cosmopolitan; the var. anserinoides, which is often difficult to distinguish from it, is said to be endemic. It is much the most plentiful state in New Zealand. |