Flora of New Zealand Series

Short-lived perennial, 1-2 m tall, strongly glandular-viscid. Stem lvs sessile, ± broad-elliptic, ± amplexicaul, puberulent, especially on veins; apex acute to abruptly acuminate; lower lvs to c. 50 × 30 cm, the upper much smaller. False raceme narrow, dense, with few branches; fls numerous, fragrant. Calyx 1.5-2 cm long; teeth 4-5 mm long, 4 narrow-triangular, 1 ovate, all short-acuminate. Corolla salverform, white; tube 6-8.5 cm long, ± fusiform; lobes 0.5-1.3 cm long, triangular-ovate, acute to short-acuminate, becoming somewhat reflexed. Capsule 1.5-2 cm long, ovoid. Seed 0.5-0.75 mm long, oblong or irregular, rugulose.

N.: Wanganui, Wellington; S.: Christchurch.

N.W. Argentina 1981

Occasional, rubbish heaps and waste places near gardens.

FL Oct-Apr.

N. sylvestris is commonly cultivated for its fragrant white fls (Fig. 114). The wild N.Z. material has more attenuated calyx and corolla lobes than many descriptions of N. sylvestris suggest but it can still be readily distinguished from the related N. alata and its hybrid as discussed under that sp.