Hooker gives a composite description based on various specimens from " Northern Island. East and south coasts, and interior, Banks and Solander, Colenso, etc. Middle Island, Bidwill, Lyall, etc. The smallest species I know, 8 inches to a foot high. Leaves all radical, except one at each fork of the stem, recurved. Petiole 4-6 inches long, stout, jointed, with eight pair of pinnae extending nearly to the base, 1/3 inch broad across the pinnae, which coriaceous, deeply veined, cuneate-orbicular, more or less deeply toothed, or cut into linear segments, each ending is a little bristle. Stems or scapes slender sparingly divided. Male umbels 11/2-2 inches across, many-flowered; flowers white, one line across. Calyx lobes variable, sometimes obsolete. Female umbels much smaller, contracted, fewer-flowered. Involucral leaves partial and general, few, linear-subulate, shorter than the peduncles. Fruit shortly pedicellate. Carpels linear, 2 lines long, equal, each with five winged ribs. Seeds deeply grooved."
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