Flora of New Zealand Series

Arum Lily

Robust, evergreen, erect, clump-forming, to 1.5 m high, in close-set tufts from a tuberous rootstock with white fleshy roots; new tubers arising from shoots on the rootstock. Leaves large, leathery; laminae sagittate or ovate-cordate, 15-45 × 10-25 cm, dark green, the very fine veins somewhat lighter green, shining, entire, tip apiculate, margins undulate; petiole 40-100 cm long, lighter green, spongy, white on inside, purplish on outside. Scape ± = leaves, green, stout. Spathe ivory-white, bright green at base on outside, to 25 cm long, funnel-shaped, narrowed towards tip with a recurved apiculus to 2 cm long. Spadix ± ½ spathe, bright yellow; basal female zone, with staminodia interspersed, c. ¼-½ length of spadix, contiguous with upper male zone; sterile terminal appendage 0. Berries green or yellow, to ± 1 cm diam.

N. Scattered; more common in North Auckland, Auckland Hawkes Bay and Gisborne. S. Nelson-Buller; Westland; Canterbury-Gore Bay. Swampy areas and damp waste land.

(S. Africa)

First record: Kirk 1870: 143, as Richardia africana Kunth.

First collection: There is a sheet of seedlings (AK 95564) collected by T. Kirk and determined as Richardia. No locality or date is given on the label but the specimen must be pre-1898. Another early collection is "Vicinity of Auckland", T.F. Cheeseman, undated [pre-1923] (AK 95563).

FL. 10-12.

Fig. 15. LEMNACEAE: A: Lemna minor, duckweed; from above, A 1 side view. B: Spirodela punctata, purple-backed duckweed; from above, B 1 side view, C: Wolffia australiana, water meal; from above, C 1 side view. © All rights reserved. [Image: 26X0]