Flora of New Zealand Series

Panax lessonii DC. Prodr. 4, 1830, 253.

Cussonia lessonii A. Rich. Essai Fl. N.Z. 1832, 285, t. 32.

Hedera lessonii Gray Bot. U.S. Expl. Exped. 1854, 719.

Shrub or tree up to 6 m. tall, branches stout with lvs crowded towards tips of branchlets, 3-5-foliolate, lvs of juveniles larger than those of adults. Petioles 5-15 cm. long, stout. Lflts subsessile, obovate-cuneate, sinuate-crenate to bluntly serrate in upper half, subacute to obtuse, thick and coriac.; terminal lflt with short petiolule, c. 5-10 × 2-4 cm. Umbels terminal, compound; staminate with 4-8 primary rays c. 4-5 cm. long, fls racemosely arranged along secondary rays; pistillate with shorter rays, fls in irregular umbellules. Ovary 5-loculed, 5-ovuled, style-branches 5, connate, tips spreading. Fr. oblong in outline, c. 7 × 5 mm.

DIST.: N. Three Kings to Poverty Bay, coastal forest and scrub.

FL. 12-2. Houpara.