Flora of New Zealand Series

restharrow

Perennial shrub; stems moderately to densely hairy, erect or ascending, with simple, scattered spines; spines up to 20 mm long. Lvs sparsely to densely clothed in glandular hairs; petioles 1-5-(10) mm long; leaflets 1 or 3, elliptic-oblong to obovate, usually obtuse, mucronate, obtuse at base, serrate, uniform in colour, c. 5-30 mm long; terminal petiolule up to 5 mm long; lateral petiolules < 1 mm long; stipules ovate, acute, serrate. Fls solitary in lf axils; pedicels c. 2 mm long. Calyx hairy; calyx teeth ± equal, narrowly triangular, 2-4× as long as tube. Corolla pink or purple, 10-15 mm long, deciduous after flowering; wings < keel. Pod hairy, ovoid, straight, 5-8 mm long, usually 2-seeded; seeds rounded, tuberculate, 2-3 mm long.

N.: Putaruru (Waikato); S.: Christchurch, Templeton.

Europe, Asia, N. Africa 1940

Rare and local, waste places, pasture and cultivated land.

FL Jan-Mar.

Restharrow has been previously known in N.Z. as O. procurrens and O. spinosa.