Flora of New Zealand Series

waxweed

Perennial, forming large patches; stems slender. Lvs simple, delicate, pale glossy green, glabrous, 5-20 mm diam., divided to ⅕-⅓ of radius into usually 5 segments; segments broadly oblong to obovate, each again usually 3-lobed and crenate or serrate; teeth with blunt cartilaginous points; margins flat; petiole glabrous or with a few retrorse hairs. Umbels simple, 2-10-flowered, mostly subsessile; peduncles much < lvs. Fls sessile or subsessile. Fr. glabrous, hairy or often with one mericarp hairy and the other glabrous, 1.3-1.5 × 1-1.3 mm, acute on dorsal edge; ribs slightly raised, slender.

N.; S.; St.; Ch.

Endemic.

Throughout in coastal and lowland damp, shady places such as stream sides and forest margins, also a common weed of lawns and bowling greens.

In most recent N.Z. Floras this sp. is treated as conspecific with N.E. North American H. americana L., but the N.Z. plant has thinner, smaller lvs, is less erect, and has less conspicuously raised ribs on the smaller frs.