Flora of New Zealand Series

Wandering Jew [Editorial note: used historically, no longer used as it is offensive.]

Trailing perennial with succulent stems, rooting readily at nodes, ascending above. Leaves 3-6 cm long, ovate-elliptic, acute, shining, very shortly petioled, leaf- and petiole-margins ciliate; sheaths 5-10 mm long, loosely clasping, hyaline, obviously ciliate. Flowers several in umbels with 2 unequal leaf-like bracts; pedicels slender, to 1.5 cm long; sepals green, c.7 mm long, ovate, hairy on keel; petals white delicate, c. 10 mm long, ovate to elliptic. Capsule not seen.

N. North Auckland; South Auckland; Bay of Plenty; Mt Egmont; Wellington. S. Stephens Id (Cook Strait); Nelson-Kahurangi Point, near Westport; Marlborough-Havelock, Rarangi; Canterbury-Christchurch. In damp shaded places.

(S. America)

First record: Carse 1916: 243

First collection: "River bank near Awanui, H. Carse, Dec. 1916 [? 15]", ().

FL. 12-1.

T. fluminensis is recognised by the ± succulent, trailing, rooting stems, ciliate leaf sheaths, and 3 acute white petals. This garden escape is established in damp shaded places - waste land, domestic gardens, under willows etc. along river and stream banks and in some localities forms dense ± succulent communities in forest remnants and damaged forest near settlement, especially in areas damaged by cattle trampling. Wandering Jew [Editorial note: used historically, no longer used as it is offensive.] competes with and often suppresses indigenous ground layer ferns, herbs, and young plants of shrubs and trees, and inhibits growth of seedlings. Seeds and broken pieces of stems are sometimes dispersed by flood waters, initiating further infestations downstream. In some habitats T. fluminensis is associated with Selaginella kraussiana which it in time suppresses.