Pleurophyllum hookeri

Pleurophyllum hookeri, also known as the silver-leaf daisy or sage-green rosette herb, is a herbaceous plant in the daisy family, a megaherb native to the subantarctic Auckland and Campbell Islands of New Zealand and Australia’s Macquarie Island. It grows up to 900 mm in height and has crimson button flowers and long, silky, silver leaves, with a large carrot-like tuber and long roots. It also has the unusual feature of a vertically contractile stem, most of which is underground, which serves to keep the leaf rosette close to the ground surface and the plant anchored securely against the very strong winds typical of subantarctic islands.[2] Prior to the successful eradication of introduced mammals on Macquarie Island in 2011, it had been threatened there by black rats[3] and European rabbits.

Pleurophyllum hookeri
Flowering Pleurophyllum hookeri (foreground) on Campbell Island; the yellow-flowers in the background are of Bulbinella rossii
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Plantae
(unranked):
Angiosperms
(unranked):
Eudicots
(unranked):
Asterids
Order:
Asterales
Family:
Asteraceae
Tribe:
Astereae
Genus:
Pleurophyllum
Species:
P. hookeri
Binomial name
Pleurophyllum hookeri
Buch.[1]
Highland herbfield on Macquarie Island dominated by the silver-leafed Pleurophyllum hookeri.

References

Notes
  1. Buchanan (1884).
  2. Briggs et al. (2006).
  3. Shaw et al. (2008).

Sources
  • Briggs, C.L.; Selkirk, P.M. & Bergstrom, D.M. (2006). "Facing the furious fifties: The contractile stem of the subantarctic megaherb Pleurophyllum hookeri" (PDF). New Zealand Journal of Botany. 44 (2): 187–197. doi:10.1080/0028825X.2006.9513017.
  • Buchanan J. (1884). Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute. 16: 395. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  • Shaw, Justine D.; Hovenden, Mark J. & Bergstrom, Dana M. (2008-06-28). "The impact of introduced ship rats (Rattus rattus) on seedling recruitment and distribution of a subantarctic megaherb (Pleurophyllum hookeri)". Austral Ecology. 30 (1): 118–125. doi:10.1111/j.1442-9993.2005.tb00371.x.
  • "Macqauarie Island - a report on a short visit". Croft, J.R.; & Richardson, M.M. Australian National Botanic Gardens. Archived from the original on 2010-09-28. Retrieved 2010-08-03.
  • "Macqauarie Island Flora – Plateau Uplands". Australian Antarctic Division. 2008-07-31. Retrieved 2010-08-03.


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