Flora of New Zealand Series

Polygonum axillare Hook. f. Fl. N.Z. 1, 1854, 211.

M. hypogaea Col. in T.N.Z.I. 21, 1889, 98.

Type locality: not stated on sheet, but probably "mountains near the East Coast". Type: K, Colenso 148.

Prostrate or occ. straggling shrub forming dense to open patches up to 1 m. or more across; stems and branches subterranean or creeping on surface, rooting at nodes where substratum favourable; branchlets slender, decumbent, ± pubescent. Lvs on slender petioles (1)-2-3-(5) mm. long; ochreae 2-3 mm. long, obliquely truncate. Lamina (2)-3-5-(10) mm. long or in diam., coriac., broad- to ovate-oblong to suborbicular, sts retuse; dark green above, paler below. Fls ± 4 mm. diam., solitary or paired (rarely up to 5 in a fascicle), axillary on slender pedicels. Tepals united to halfway, lobes narrow-triangular. ♀ with fimbriate stigmas; tepals white and succulent or dry in fr. (both forms may occur on same plant.) Fr. ± 3 × 1·75 mm., trigonous, somewhat glossy, black.

DIST.: N., S. Montane to lower subalpine riverbeds, gravelly and rocky places and open grassland from lat. 38° southwards.

FL.- FT. 11-4.

Colenso's M. hypogaea (T.N.Z.I. 21, 1889, 98) was based on specimens collected "on the sides and near the summit of Mount Tongariro . . . almost entirely hidden among low small herbs and mosses; 1887: Mr H. Hill". He had "only a few specimens". The fruits are described as "11/2 lines long, rhomboidal, triquetrous, angles obtuse, sides concave, tip acute, black, smooth not shining". The type, in W, consists of a few fragments in very poor condition. There are 2 small lfless specimens in K, the lvs in a packet, I can find no essential differences from M. axillaris.