Volume III (1980) - Flora of New Zealand Adventive Cyperaceous, Petalous & Spathaceous Monocotyledons
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Lotus australis

*L. australis (R. Br.) Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm. 3, 1838, 241.

Trunk 10-25 m high, slender, with circular leaf-scars. Crown dense; leaves orbicular in outline, to 1.5 m diam., divided below middle into 40-50 narrow, plicate, acuminate leaflets, entire, or bifid at apex; petioles to 1.2 m long, tough, rigid, spreading to decurved; margin with strong spiny teeth. Panicle to 1.2 m long, glabrous, drooping, repeatedly branched, primary branches thick, often angular, usually curved and flexuous, ultimate branches or spikes 3-7 cm long. Spathe to 30 cm long, lanceolate, ± tomentose. Flowers c. 3 mm long. Drupe globular, 12-20 mm diam., deep purple-blue, 1-seeded, hard, pericarp rather wrinkled, granular within.

N. Kawau Id; freely naturalised.

(Australia and scattered in tropics)

First record:‡

FL. 9-10.

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