Flora of New Zealand Series

sweet pea shrub

Perennial much-branched shrub up to 2 m high. Young stems with short curly hairs, glabrous when older. Lvs all alternate, glabrous or very sparsely hairy, elliptic to obovate, obtuse or rarely slightly retuse, entire, (10)-15-30-(35) mm long; petioles 1-2 mm long. Fls clustered in short, simple, terminal racemes; perianth coloured or veined purple toward apex; pedicels 5-8 mm long; bracts suborbicular, 2-3 mm long, persistent; 3 outer sepals ovate, 5-7 mm long; wings petaloid, ovate-orbicular, c. 15-17 mm long, slightly > corolla; outer petals 2-lobed, c. ?-1/4 length of keel; keel with a fimbriate crest near apex. Capsule glabrous, c. 10 mm long with a marginal wing c. 1 mm wide, c. ⅔ length of persistent calyx wings; seeds hairy, dark brown, oblong, c. 5 mm long; strophiole 3-lobed.

N.: common from Auckland City northwards, also established in Tauranga, New Plymouth, Napier, and on the W. coast N. of Wellington; S.: Nelson City.

South Africa 1870

Mostly in coastal habitats, occasionally in scrubland.

FL Jan-Dec.

Sweet pea shrub is cultivated in N.Z. as an ornamental.

Fig. 94. Polygala myrtifolia, A fl. with one wing folded back, B fr. with one wing removed. © All rights reserved. [Image: 4X6N]