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Aciphylla aurea
Also called Golden Spaniard, Golden Speargrass Or Golden Spaniard
A large, spiky, tufted New Zealand perennial from the South Island's dry mountains and alpine grassland. It is a native wild species rather than a common garden plant, and it needs free-draining, sunny conditions.
Aciphylla aurea, known as taramea in Māori and golden speargrass or golden Spaniard in New Zealand English, is a large, spiky, tufted plant with sharp yellowish-green leaves in the speargrass genus Aciphylla. A. aurea is found throughout the South Island of New Zealand in montane to low alpine habitats.
A. aurea is endemic to the South Island of New Zealand, from Nelson and Marlborough near Mount Stokes to northern Southland near Te Anau, mostly on the eastern side of the Southern Alps. It prefers montane to low alpine dry, rocky sites including grassland from 300–1,500 m above sea level. A. aurea can be common in the drier mountains of Marlborough.
Aciphylla aurea is one of several large species of Aciphylla with a milky exudate that was harvested and used by Māori to make perfume. The phytochemistry of A. aurea has been found to include the non-volatile polyacetylene falcarindiol and the seeds contained steam-distilled volatiles such as heptanal and octanoic acid.
Aciphylla anomala · Colenso's Spaniard · Aciphylla congesta · Coxella · Fierce Spaniard · Mountain Celery · Aciphylla glaucescens · Aciphylla horrida · Aciphylla monroi · Aciphylla scott-thomsonii · Common Speargrass · Aciphylla subflabellata
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Aciphylla aurea by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
