The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network

Species

Traversia baccharoides

Etymology

Traversia: Named after William Thomas Locke Travers (1819–1903) who was an Irish lawyer, magistrate, politician, explorer, naturalist, photographer. He lived in New Zealand from 1849 onwards and became a fellow of the Linnean Society. Sir Joseph Hooker named the genus after him.

Common Name(s)

Traversia

Current Conservation Status

2012 - At Risk - Declining

Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012
The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2012 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS). This report includes a statistical summary and brief notes on changes since 2009 and replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Authors: Peter J. de Lange, Jeremy R. Rolfe, Paul D. Champion, Shannel P. Courtney, Peter B. Heenan, John W. Barkla, Ewen K. Cameron, David A. Norton and Rodney A. Hitchmough. File size: 792KB

Previous Conservation Status

2009 - At Risk - Declining
2004 - Sparse

Qualifiers

2009 - EF

Authority

Traversia baccharoides Hook f.

Family

Asteraceae

Brief Description

Bushy spreading shrub to around 1m tall with flaky bark and grooved twigs bearing sticky thick leathery toothed leaves inhabiting upland areas of the northern South Island. Leaves 50-80mm long, vein network sunken into upper leaf surface. Flowers white, small, with some projecting filaments. Seeds small, fluffy.

Flora Category

Vascular - Native

NVS Species Code

TRABAC

Structural Class

Dicotyledonous Trees & Shrubs

Synonyms

Senecio germinatus Kirk

Distribution

Endemic. Northern South Island (Nelson, Marlborough to northern Canterbury)

Habitat

Montane forest to subalpine shrublands (700 - 1400 m a.s.l.). Often found at forest margins on cliff faces, on steep rubble-strewn slopes, amongst boulders or at the bottom of talus slopes in and amongst other low shrubs.

Features

Small densely to openly branched often somewhat straggly, viscid sticky, resinous, dark green to yellow green shrub up to 1 x 1 m. Trunk and older branches clad in loose, papery pinkish-grey to pale brown bark; bark peeling or flaking readily. Branchlets slender, brittle, clad in persistant leaf base remnants, deeply and longitudinally grooved; young branchlets distinctly resinous and sticky. Emergent leaves and leaf buds viscid sticky. Leaves 50-80 x 15-30 mm, dark glossy green, obovate to rhomboid, obtuse to subacute, cuneately narrowed to decurrent base, coarsely serrated in upper expanded third, subcoriaceous to coriaceous, venation conspicuous. Subfloral leaves smaller otherwise similar to branchlet leaves, though more finely serrate, grading into bracts subtending inflorescences. Inflorescence a lax corymb of 1-12 capitula. Pedicels 2-5 mm long, slender, usually in pairs, bracteolate, extremely viscid. Involucre of 6-8, linear-oblong, obtuse, rigid and coriaceous, viscid involucral bracts up to 6 mm long, margins membranous. Capitula 8 x 10 mm, receptacle alveolate; florets 12-15, perfect, pale pink or white, narrow-tubular to cylindric, campanulate above, with 5 linear lobes up to 2.5 mm long, these spreading to recurved, > pappus hairs; stamens prominent and exserted. Cypsela 2.8-4 mm long, buff to grey nut-brown, narrowly elliptic, with slight waist below pappus at apex, ribs 9-10, broad and flat; resin ducts prominent, rib-like, rounded, translucent, golden. Pappus unequally biseriate, 3.5-5 mm long, minutely barbellate.

Similar Taxa

A well marked plant. The glossy dark green to yellow green, extremely viscid sticky somewhat resinous leaves, often straggly shrub habit, deeply grooved branchlets bearing numerous persistent leaf bases, fuchsia-like readily flaking bark and off-pink to white subcorymbosely arranged capitula with prominently exserted stamens readily distinguish this species from other indigenous shrub daisies.

Flowering

December - March

Flower Colours

Red / Pink,White

Fruiting

February - June

Propagation Technique

Easy from cuttings but rather slow growing. Dislikes humidity

Threats

A naturally uncommon sporadically occurring species

Chromosome No.

2n = 60

Endemic Taxon

Yes

Endemic Genus

Yes

Endemic Family

No

This page last updated on 20 Jan 2014