Pachystegia insignis is a species of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. It is endemic to New Zealand.

Taxonomy

The species was first described by Joseph Dalton Hooker in 1855, who named the species Olearia insignis. It was recognised as a member of the genus Pachystegia by Thomas Frederic Cheeseman, whose description was posthumously published in the Manual of the New Zealand Flora (second edition) in 1925.

Description

Cheeseman described the species as follows: "A low robust spreading shrub 1–6 ft. high, rarely more; branches stout, densely tomentose. Leaves crowded at the ends of the branches, 3–7 in. long, 1–4 in. broad, oblong or oblong-ovate or narrow-obovate, obtuse, equal or unequal at the base, quite entire, excessively thick and coriaceous, glabrous and shining above, under-surface thickly clothed with white appressed tomentum, becoming fulvous or red when dry, veins evident on both surfaces; petiole 4-2in. long, stout. Peduncles 1–5 at the ends of the branches, 4–12 in. long, stout, evenly tomentose, naked or with a few foliaceous bracts immediately below the head. Head large, hemispherical, 2-3in. diam.; involucral scales imbricated in many series, tomentose. Ray-florets very numerous; ligules narrow, white. Disc-florets yellow. Pappus of one series of equal scabrid hairs thickened at the tips. Achenes long and slender, silky."