[2] The type locality of this species is Swampy Hill in Otago and the several syntype specimens, collected by Oliver on 25 November 1950, are held at Te Papa.

Flowers are cream to yellow in colour, and grouped into compound inflorescences called umbels that have linear bracts.

In female plants, the umbels are on peduncles up to 15 cm long and are made up of umbellules on short rays.

[8] 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.

[16] The phytochemistry of A. aurea has been found to include the non-volatile polyacetylene falcarindiol[17] and the seeds contained steam-distilled volatiles such as heptanal and octanoic acid.