Clematis afoliata Buchanan
C. aphylla Col. in T.N.Z.I. 19, 1887, 259.
Stems ∞, up to 3 m. long, stiff, wiry, grooved, glab., forming large masses in rocky and open ground, occ. scandent. Branches yellowish green, 3-4 mm. diam., terete, finely grooved, bound together by lf-tendrils; nodes distant. Lvs reduced to petioles and petiolules up to 6 cm. long, strongly spirally coiled. Laminae developed in shade and on young plants, small, entire, ovate, acute. Infl. axillary; fls solitary or in panicles of 2-5 on pilose peduncles 1-2 cm. long; bracts pilose-pubescent, narrow-ovate, c. 2 mm. long. ♂ 3-4 cm. diam.; sepals 4 (rarely 5), c. 2 cm. long, ovate-oblong, obtuse to subacute, greenish yellow; stamens ∞, anthers linear-oblong, c. 2 mm. long. ♀ similar, but smaller; achenes ∞, 3-4 mm. long, ovoid, reddish brown, pilose-pubescent; styles c. 2 cm. long.
DIST.: N. Rocky and open places: near Waipawa, Lyttelton Range, near Wellington. S. Rocky and open places, tussock-grassland throughout, but local.
FL. 10-11. FT. 12-1. Buchanan cites "Waitaki Valley, Otago, and Marlborough." The life-history deserves working out.
Colenso's C. aphylla was described from plants "Trailing and hanging down on cliffy spots, Puketapu, near Napier; 1885-6: Mr. H. Hill." His description includes: "A slender prostrate trailing plant . . . steras . . . 1 line diameter, green. glabrous. striate. few-branched . . . Leaves 0. Peduncles slender, hairy . . . a 2-lobed connate densely hairy bract at base, and another about the middle; hairs brown. Flowers hermaphrodite . . . single, small, greenish with a brown tinge, about 1 inch diameter, (?). monoecious; sepals 4 . . . 6 lines long, very silky on both surfaces . . . stamens 10 . . . anthers long, linear, very narrow, with a minute blunt connective; achenes (immature) slightly silky . . ." Kirk (Stud. Fl. 1899, 3) accepted it as a var. of C. afoliata. Further study is desirable.
