A Study of the Life-History of Ourisia Macrophylla (Hook)

Abstract

Discovery of Ourisia macrophylla. Ourisia macrophylla was discovered on the first ascent of lit. Egmont in December 1840, by Dr. Ernest Dieffenbach, naturalist to the New Zealand Company, .and sent to Kew, where it was identified by Sir William Hooker and described in the Icones Plantarum (1843) under the name Ourisia macrophylla. The Genus. Ourisia is a genus of south circumpolar distribution and has no affinities in the Northern Hemisphere. It is one of a group of plants restricted to Alpine or littoral habitats in Tasmania, New Zealand and Fuegia. Ourisia macrophylla is endemic in New Zealand but is closely related to Tasmanian Ourisia integrifolia and Fuegian Ourisia magellanica Explaining the disjunct distribution of these plants is a major geographical problem