Flora of New Zealand Series

moth plant

Vigorous liane with twining puberulent stems. Petioles to c. 4 cm long, densely puberulent or whitish tomentulose. Lamina 2.7-12 × 1.5-6 cm, ovate-oblong or oblong, dark green and becoming glabrous above except for midrib, glaucous-white tomentulose beneath; base deeply cordate with acute sinus, or truncate on flowering shoots; apex rounded and mucronate. Fls usually 2-4. Peduncles and pedicels to c. 1.5 cm long, tomentulose. Bracts usually < longer pedicels, linear or linear-oblong. Calyx 8-15 mm long; segments ovate, imbricate, tomentulose. Corolla (1.7)-2-2.5 × 1.5-2 cm, deeply campanulate, white, sometimes strongly streaked with pinkish mauve inside. Gynostegium 1/2-⅔ length of corolla tube. Follicle to 10-(12) × 7 cm, oblong-ovoid or ovoid, green, thick and leathery, minutely tomentulose, with carpel groove down inner face. Seeds 7-8 mm long, oblong-spathulate, dark brown, tuberculate; silken apical tuft 3-5 cm long.

N.: occasional throughout, especially in the Auckland area and coastal Bay of Plenty; S.: Blenheim.

S. Brazil, Argentina 1888

Around gardens, in waste places, plantations and other modified habitats.

FL Dec-May.

Although moth plant (Fig. 15), also often called cruel plant, is cultivated throughout N.Z., naturalised plants only occur in warmer areas. The plants are self-fertile and freely set seed, although visiting insects (moths, butterflies, and bees) are trapped and killed by the viscid secretion from the gynostegial glands. The colour of the inside of the corolla varies with some plants white throughout and others lightly to heavily marked with pinkish mauve. The sp. has previously been known in N.Z. as Physianthus albens and Araujia hortorum.

Fig. 15. A Araujia sericifera; B-C Gomphocarpus fruticosus, B fl., C fr. © All rights reserved. [Image: 4X46]