The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network

We returned recently to Dunedin, after 20 years away in Australia, and we have discovered a small but attractive ground cover plant in a corner of our urban section. I have potted and photographed a small sample of the plant, but my post-Botany I skills are not up to its identification! The particular corner of the section has been planted with exotics; - rhododendrons, bruxus, and rosemary - by a previous owner, so I suspect this may not be a native. Any help with ID will be greatly appreciated. PS "Rosettes" of leaves are about 25 mm in diameter, and the habit is prostrate.

Your image is not very clear but it looks like something in the Crassulaceae - its not native anyway. I suggest you consider sending fresh (live) material to the Allan Herbarium, Landcare Research, P.O. Box 40, Lincoln 7640, marked "Live Plant, Attention Bill Sykes" - and see what he says of it. Either that or post close ups of the foliage, and flowers if you can find any.

To Peter,
Thank you very much for your excellent suggestion.
(PS: Am I right in assuming the Allan Herbarium has been named in honour of the Allan of legendary "Allan's Flora" that was our ecological bible when I was doing Botany in the 60's?)

Hi Geoff

Indeed you are correct. That Herbarium changed its name in September 2001 to commemorate Harry Howard Allan the main author of Flora I, the first of the DSIR Botany Division Flora series.

To Peter,
Thank you - again.
Regarding the ground cover ID; I'm not so sure that I would want to sustain its propagation if it is a Crassula! Having 'Googled' Crassula in New Zealand, it seems that a number of the species from that genus are noxious weeds here!

Following on . . .Peter rightly observed that my .jpeg file of the specimen lacked clarity, so here is a close-up of one of the "rosettes" - about 30 mm across. It really does have the symmetry resembling members of Crassulaceae.