Flora of New Zealand Series

M. variaefolium Hook. f. Ic. Pl. 3, 1840, t. 289.

M. intermedium Kirk Stud. Fl. 1899, 150 non DC.

Type locality: "Bogs at the Mission Station on the Keri Keri river, as also on the Hokianga river" R. Cunningham, 1834. Type: K, A. Cunningham, No. 532. Also in Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales and W. Australia.

Soft herb of water or damp places, stems slender, us. simple, rooting from lower nodes, 5-40-(100) cm. tall. Lvs in whorls of c. 5, of many sizes and shapes; submerged lvs us. c. 2 cm. long, pinnatisect with fine segs; upper emergent lvs becoming shorter and narrower, the pinnules reducing to teeth and finally disappearing leaving lvs linear and entire, 5-15 × < 1 mm. Fls solitary in axils of upper lvs, us. unisexual, bracteoles c. 0·3 mm. long, triangular, minutely serrulate; ♀ us. lower but ♀ and ♂ may occur in same whorl; ♀ sessile, c. 1 mm. long, sepals and petals 0, styles stout, stigmas with very long hairs; ♂ 2-3 mm. long, abortive ovary forming small pedicel; sepals < bracteoles, petals pale, stamens 8, anthers c. 2 × 0·5 mm.; fr. pale, 1·2 mm. long, mericarps cylindrical, faces rough with sparse short papillae.

DIST.: N., S., St. In streams and swamps.

FL. 11-4. FT. 11-5.

Schindler (Pflanzenr. 23, 1905, 89-90) differentiated var. genuinum, with thick linear lvs with submucronate apices, from var. tenuifolium, with thinner linear-oblong subobtuse lvs. The latter, which he records only from a number of N.Z. specimens, would be expected to include Cunningham's type and would then be correctly called var. propinquum. Var. genuinum was based on specimens from Tasmania and Australia and one (Hügel) from N.Z. The few Australian specimens seen have lvs more nearly parallel-sided than in the common N.Z. form, there is a rather distinct apiculus, and the whorls are of about 7 instead of 4-5 lvs.

There is no good evidence for the occurrence in N.Z. of M. verrucosum, recorded doubtfully by Kirk (Stud. Fl., 150). A specimen in W so labelled ("Tauranga, Decemb. 1874, S. Berggren") consists of fragments of stems with a few pinnate lvs and could well belong to M. propinquum.