Flora of New Zealand Series

henbane

Annual or biennial, mostly densely hairy and glandular viscid; stems 30-60 cm tall. Lvs mostly sessile, but larger ones forming basal rosette with petiole several cm long; lamina 4-12 × 1.5-6 cm, ± ovate, coarsely dentate or lobulate; apex acute; midrib beneath hairy. Bracts leaflike. Fls subsessile, foetid. Calyx 1-1.5 cm long at anthesis, aristate, c. 2.5-3.5 cm long at fruiting, with a marked constriction below teeth, stiff and papery; tube campanulate at fruiting, pilose; teeth pungent. Corolla c. 2.5 × 2-3 cm diam., whitish or pale yellow with purplish veins in upper ⅔, dark purple in lower ⅓, becoming generally mauve or purplish when dry. Filaments white, glandular-hairy; anthers purple. Style purple. Capsule c. 1 cm diam., ± globose. Seeds ± reniform, strongly pitted.

N.: Wellington; S.: Canterbury (Christchurch, Banks Peninsula, Ashburton), C. Otago (established at Kawerau Gorge, also at Bannockburn and possibly near towns in the Clutha Valley).

Europe, W. Asia, N. Africa 1906

Occasional in waste and open places near habitations, rubbish heaps, wharf areas, and gardens.

FL Nov-Jun.

Poisonous (Connor 1977).

A fl. and fruiting calyx of henbane are illustrated in Fig. 113. Some of these occurrences of henbane originate from seed which probably came in as an impurity amongst crop seeds, but it was also once grown experimentally at Waiwhetu, Upper Hutt, for its powerful alkaloids.