Button daisy Leptinella filiformis

Leptinella filiformis foliage
Leptinella filiformis flower
Leptinella filiformis

Key Features

  • A creeping, mat-forming daisy with a compact habit, small, green, feathery leaves and small, white inflorescences borne on thin stalks.

Distribution and Habitat

  • Northeast South Island. Leptinella filiformis favours bare soils in areas of sparse vegetation, on dry alluvial terraces, plains, fans and basins.

Threats

  • Habitat modification and loss through intensification of farming or afforestation.
  • Competition with exotic plants.
  • Natural succession to closed-canopy vegetation.

Management Opportunities

  • Survey for new locations.
  • Mark known sites.
  • Protection of habitat.
  • Weed control.
  • Avoid afforestation of known sites.
  • Propagation of plants for re-establishment at appropriate sites.

Monitoring Options

  • Check existing populations annually.
  • Report new locations to DOC and NZPCN.

Further Information and Support

  • New Zealand Plant Conservation Network (NZPCN). http://www.nzpcn.org.nz
  • Weed management - DOC, Regional Councils
  • References
    • Dopson, S.R.; de Lange, P.J.; Ogle, C.C.; Rance, B.D.; Courtney, S. & Molloy, J. (1999). The conservation requirements of New Zealand’s nationally threatened vascular plants. Threatened Species Occasional Publication 13. Department of Conservation, Wellington.
    • Molloy, B.P.J. (1999). Notes on the rare button daisy Leptinella filiformis (Hook.f) D.G.Lloyd & C.J.Webb. New Zealand Botanical Society Newsletter 55: 16-20.
    • Peter de Lange, Peter Heenan, David Norton, Jeremy Rolfe and John Sawyer (2010). Threatened Plants of New Zealand. Canterbury University Press, Christchurch. 472 pp.