About Pleurophyllum hookeri Buchanan
Pleurophyllum hookeri, commonly called the silver-leaf daisy or sage-green rosette herb, is a herbaceous megaherb in the daisy family Asteraceae. It is native to the subantarctic Auckland and Campbell Islands of New Zealand, and Australia’s Macquarie Island. This species grows up to 900 millimetres in height. It produces crimson button flowers and long, silky, silver leaves, and has a large carrot-like tuber along with long roots. An unusual trait of this plant is its vertically contractile stem, most of which grows underground. This stem structure keeps the plant’s leaf rosette close to the ground surface, and anchors the plant securely against the very strong winds common to subantarctic islands. Before introduced mammals were successfully eradicated from Macquarie Island in 2011, populations of the species on the island were threatened by black rats and European rabbits.
