Flora of New Zealand Series

Madeira vine

Stems climbing, slender and often reddish. Lvs subsessile or with petiole to 1-(2) cm long, commonly with small irregular tubers in their axils. Lamina 2-11-(13) × 1.75-10-(11) cm, broadly ovate, often involute, scarcely succulent to succulent according to degree of exposure, shining; base subcordate or cordate; apex obtuse. Racemes simple or 2-4-branched, pendent, to c. 18 cm long excluding common peduncle, with numerous small, white, fragrant fls. Pedicels 2-3 mm long; bracts 1.5-1.8 mm long, lanceolate-subulate. Lower bracteoles 0.5-1 mm long, cupulate; upper bracteoles c. 2-2.5 mm long, suborbicular. Tepals 2-3 mm long, elliptic-oblong to broadly elliptic. Filaments narrow-triangular, widely divergent, bending outwards near base. Style 1, < stamens; branches 1/2-3/4 length of fused part; stigmas clavate.

N.: coastal localities from N. Auckland to Hawke's Bay and Manawatu; S.: semi-wild around gardens on the Port Hills, Canterbury; K.

Tropical S. America 1940

Waste land, especially scrub-covered areas such as coastal gullies.

FL Jan-Apr.

Madeira vine or mignonette vine is cultivated in warmer parts of N.Z. and spreads freely by pieces of rhizome and stem tubers. Frs are not formed in N.Z. Where it has become naturalised its smothering habit makes it a nuisance and this is even more true on tropical Pacific Is to the north. It has previously been known in N.Z. as Boussingaultia baselloides, B. gracilis f. pseudobaselloides, and B. cordifolia.