Do not sit on it. It looks like something you would sit on by accident. Raoulia australis is an alpine cushion plant. Known as scabweed or vegetable sheep junior edition. It grows in the high mountains of the South Island. It forms dense, low cushions that look like grey-green lumps from a distance. Up close, they are intricate. The leaves are tiny, overlapping, pressed tight against the stem. They are covered in fine hairs. Giving the plant a silvery-grey appearance. The flowers are small, yellow, clustered at the tips of the cushions. They appear in summer. Raoulia australis grows on rocky slopes, in scree, on exposed ridges. It likes sun. It likes wind. It hates competition. It grows where other plants cannot survive. The plant is a cushion-former. It grows slowly. Adding millimetres each year. A large cushion may be decades old. It is a living rock. The common name vegetable sheep refers to the larger Raoulia species that look like sheep from a distance. Raoulia australis is smaller. It is the junior edition. Scabweed is a misleading name. The plant is not a weed. It is a native alpine specialist. Raoulia australis is endemic to New Zealand. It is found only in the South Island mountains. The genus is named for Étienne Raoul. A nineteenth-century French naturalist who collected plants in New Zealand. In the alpine zone, Raoulia australis is an important pioneer. It stabilises scree. It creates microhabitats for other plants. It is the first to colonise bare rock. Climate change is a threat. Alpine plants are being pushed uphill. There is only so high they can go. Raoulia australis is a reminder. The high places have their own plants. Adapted. Resilient. Ancient. To find it is to look on the rocky slopes. Look for the dense, low cushions. They feel like stone. It is a plant of the exposed places. A survivor of the cold. Common in alpine areas of the South Island. Not threatened. Forms distinctive cushion-like mats in exposed sites.