Flora of New Zealand Series

Lotus arboreus Forst. f. Prodr. 1786, 52.

C. paludosa Ckn. in T.N.Z.I. 47, 1915, 113.

Type locality: Dusky Sound. Type: coll. G. Forster.

Much-branched shrub or tree up to 3-5 m. tall; branches ascending, ∞; branchlets us. close-set, strict, compressed, striate, glab., 1-2-(3) mm. wide. Lvs (1)-3-(5)-foliolate, glab. or nearly so; lflts up to 6 × 4 mm., obcordate-cuneate, or lobes acute, sinus narrow. Infl. of 1-3 racemes per notch, subumbellately 3-5-fld, on peduncles up to 10 mm. long, us. less. Fls ± 5 × 4 mm., on glab. pedicels c. 2 mm. long. Calyx c. 2 × 2 mm., glab. or nearly so; teeth minute, broad-triangular. Standard with purple centre and veins; keel whitish, with greenish base, auricles rounded; wings white, purple-veined, auricles bluntly pointed. Ovary glab. Pods obliquely broad-oblong, (8)-9-10 × 4-5 mm., subcompressed, dark brown to black; beak stout, subulate, almost pungent, 3-4-(5) mm. long, somewhat obliquely placed. Seeds 2-4, pale to yellowish green, ± heavily black-mottled (some plants otherwise similar have seeds with distinctly red ground-colour).

DIST.: S. Lowland to lower montane streamsides, forest margins, shrubland, alluvial and swampy or boggy ground throughout, mainly west of divide.

The Forster sheet at K has 6 pieces: branchlets c. 1-2 mm. wide, much-compressed, finely grooved; pods immature 5-9 × 3-4 mm., obliquely elliptic-oblong; beak stout, subulate, ± 2.5 mm. long (some apparently broken off at apex). Dehiscence commencing at apex. A slender branch has the branchlets lfy; lvs in poor condition, apparently all 3-foliolate: lflts ± 5 × 2 mm., deeply acutely lobed, with narrow sinus.

Richard (Essai Fl. N.Z. 1832, 345) cites Forster's ms. description, which includes: "ramuli herbacei, virides, virgati, diffusi, flexuosi, compressi subtetragoni, lateribus oppositis sulcatis. Folia rara, alterna, ternata . . . capitulum 3-5-florum, laxum, parvum . . . Legumen ovato-lanceolatum."

Cockayne's (loc. cit.) description of his C. paludosa includes: "Frutex . . . fastigiatus, circ. 1·2 m. altus. Ramuli stricti, filiformi, flavido-virides, striati. Racemi vel fasciculi, 2-6-flori; floribus minutis breviter pedicellatis. Calyx campanulatus, sparse pilosus . . . Legumen ellipticum, 9 mm. longum, valide compressum . . . rostro stricto 5 mm. longo; semina 2-3, nigro-maculosa. South Island: Westland-Abundant in lowland swamps. L.C."

Although Cockayne has written on a specimen from the Clinton River (W, No. 224/486) "This is probably C. arborea, of which C. paludosa Ckn. is a synonym, 16/12/31", further study may show that the swamp plant may be worthy of varietal rank.