Leptinella is a genus of alpine

Alpine plant

Alpine plants are plants that grow in the alpine climate, which occurs at high elevation and above the tree line. Alpine plants grow together as a plant community in alpine tundra.-Alpine plant diversity:...

 flowering plant

Flowering plant

The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...

 in the Asteraceae

Asteraceae

The Asteraceae or Compositae , is an exceedingly large and widespread family of vascular plants. The group has more than 22,750 currently accepted species, spread across 1620 genera and 12 subfamilies...

 family, comprising 33 species, distributed in New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, the Subantarctic Islands, and South America.

For over 100 years, Leptinella species were considered part of the genus Cotula

Cotula

Cotula is a genus of flowering plant in the Asteraceae family. It includes about 80 species of plants known generally as water buttons or buttonweeds....

, but the genus Leptinella was reinstated by Lloyd & Webb in 1987. They determined that all species of Leptinella are distinguished from those of the other two sections of Cotula, and other Anthemideae

Anthemideae

The tribe Anthemideae is a division of the family Asteraceae and of the subfamily Asteroideae that contains more than 100 genera which combined contain more than 1200 species. A cosmopolitan tribe, members can be found throughout the world somewhat concentrated in the Mediterranean regions of...

, by the conspicuous "inflated" corollas of the female florets

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

 and by chromosome

Chromosome

A chromosome is an organized structure of DNA and protein found in cells. It is a single piece of coiled DNA containing many genes, regulatory elements and other nucleotide sequences. Chromosomes also contain DNA-bound proteins, which serve to package the DNA and control its functions.Chromosomes...

 numbers based on x = 26 where known.

Leptinella squalida 'Platt's Black' is a form cultivated as a garden plant, and is used for ground cover

Groundcover

Groundcover refers to any plant that grows over an area of ground, used to provide protection from erosion and drought, and to improve its aesthetic appearance .- Ecosystem :...

.

Species

• L. dioica
• L. gruveri
• L. maniototo
• L. squalida - New Zealand Brass Buttons