Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Pelorus River. Type: BD 45709A (G. S. 263), near Pelorus River Bridge, G. Simpson.

Bushy shrub up to c. 2 m. tall, with spreading branches; branchlets spring- and summer-lfy, glab. or nearly so, ± drooping, up to 20 cm. × 3 mm., much-compressed, grooved. Lvs of young plants 5-10-foliolate, of adults 3-5-foliolate; lflts subsessile, about obcordate, ± 4 × 2 mm. Infl. of solitary ascending to spreading racemes on peduncles ± 10 mm. long, densely 8-10-(15)-fld. Fls c. 5 × 5 mm., on pedicels ± 1 mm. long. Calyx ± 3 × 2 mm., teeth triangular, long-pointed. Standard purple-veined, purple-blotched; keel white, auricles rounded; wings white, purple-blotched and -veined. Ovary glab. Pods strict, crowded, stramineous to light brown, ovate, subcompressed, ± 5 × 3 mm.; beak 1-2 mm. long, subulate, sharp-pointed. Seeds us. 2, ± flattened, 2 mm. diam., dark brown with or without darker markings.

DIST.: S. Lowland to montane streamsides, eastern Nelson and Marlborough.

Simpson remarks: "Leafy plants of this species have been recorded as C. odorata, and leafless plants as C. australis. It is nearest allied to C. odorata, but unlike that species by its coriaceous branchlets and its densely packed racemes of small, pungent beaked, long-persistent pods."