Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Mataikona, a little north of Castle Point. Type: K, 209 W. Colenso, 1847.

Much-branched glab. shrub 1-2-(3) m. tall, branches slender; young branches and branchlets drooping; branchlets c. 1 mm. diam., plano-convex, striate. Lvs ± 3-foliolate; lflts 2-3 mm. diam., subsessile, obcordate-cuneate, ± pilose below. Infl. of 2-4 racemes per notch, subumbellately (3)-5-(7)-fld, on peduncles hardly > 2 mm. long. Fls c. 4 × 3 mm. or less, on pedicels ± 1 mm. long. Calyx c. 1 mm. long; teeth minute. Standard flushed purple and purple-veined, auricles pointed; wings > keel. Ovary glab. Pods ± compressed, obliquely suborbicular, c. 5 mm. diam., dark brown; beak stout, straight, abruptly narrowed to acute apex, obliquely placed, ± 2 mm. long. Seeds (1)-2, red, ± black-mottled.

DIST.: N. Lowland to lower montane streamsides, alluvial ground, forest margins from near East Cape southwards.

Hooker (loc. cit.) describes the pods as: "obliquely orbicular, with a stout sharp rostrum placed obliquely, two-seeded." In the type cover at K are two sheets: (a) "209 Carmichaelia? filiformis, shrub, common in this district . . . 2-5 and 7 feet high, drooping, leafless. Generally low bushes, much branched at top." The branchlets are much-compressed, thin, 1-(2) mm. wide, striate; racemes 4-6-fruited. Pods completely dehiscent, obliquely suborbicular, ± 4-5 × 4-5 mm.; beak stout, ± 2 mm. long, obliquely placed: valves very dark brown, almost black; seeds now almost uniformly dull black.-(b) "1517 C. flagelliformis". The specimens are from "Low woods, banks of river, Ruahine Range, west side, 1848" and are similar to 209, and some seeds still show a very dark red ground-colour.