Flora of New Zealand Series

bush lawyer

Scrambling liane; stems stout, terete, finely tomentose when young, sometimes becoming glabrous, often only sparsely hairy in juveniles; armature of numerous, small, slender, wide-based, reddish prickles. Lvs palmate; leaflets 3-5, mostly glabrous but often with weak hairs on major veins on both surfaces and margins, usually coarsely and often unevenly serrate, thin and submembranous and with veins darkened and conspicuous in juveniles; terminal leaflet lamina elliptic to ovate or suborbicular, 15-60 × 10-40 mm, with petiolule usually c. = or > lamina, rarely shorter. Infl. a many-flowered panicle up to 20 cm long. Petals white to cream, occasionally pinkish. Drupelets pale yellow to orange-red.

N.; S.: throughout but rare in drier E. areas; St.

Endemic.

Lowland to montane forest, less commonly in more open habitats and scrub.

FL Aug-Jan FT Oct-Mar.

This sp. is easily distinguished by the rounded, almost glabrous, coarsely toothed, relatively small, long-petiolulate terminal leaflets.