Flora of New Zealand Series

scrambling fumitory

Scrambling to climbing annual herb. Lvs distant; lamina dissected, pale glaucous green, up to 8 × 4 cm; segments cuneiform or lanceolate. Infl. dense or lax, with up to 15 fls; rachis usually < or = peduncle. Peduncles 1-2-(4) cm long; bracts ovate, acuminate, membranous, often pink, < pedicels, 1.2-2 × 0.5-1 mm; pedicels remaining erect at fruiting, c. 4 mm long. Sepals ovate, dentate, acute, up to 2-3 × 1-1.5 mm. Corolla pale pink with dark purple tips, (6)-8-10 mm long; lower petal spoon-shaped at apex but margins erect. Fr. obovoid, usually slightly longer than broad, smooth when dry, c. 2 × 2 mm; apex obtuse; apical pits small.

N.; S.; St.; K.

W. Europe 1878

Common throughout in cultivated fields, gardens and waste places.

FL Aug-Jan-(Jul) Sep-Mar-(Aug).

N.Z. plants are referable to subsp. muralis. Some plants, not always from shaded sites, have unusually small pale fls, with very poor development of wings on the outer petals; the placement of such plants with F. muralis is tentative.

F. muralis has also been referred to in N.Z. as F. capreolata subsp. muralis.