Flora of New Zealand Series

The separation given in the key is that us. accepted, but no satisfactory treatment of the complex, members of which range from lat. 37° 30' southwards, will be possible without much more distributional, experimental, and cultural work. Herbarium specimens are mostly very poorly annotated and incomplete, and no satisfactory correlation of the characters concerned is at present possible. There is considerable diversity in the nature and degree of hairiness; shape, size, and lobing of lflts; structure and size of ♂ and ♀; shape, size and colour of sepals; shape, size, and degree of connation of bract pairs. Achenial characters are rather more clearly differentiated when perfectly ripe material is available. Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 433) suggests that "Further investigation will probably prove both to be forms of one variable plant." I give a comparative table drawn from the original descriptions, adjusted to metric measures, and a description of certain specimens indicating something of the diversity to be found. Names assigned in herbaria seem to have been given largely "according to taste" of the namer.

A Colenso sheet of. C. quadribracteolata in K (9/83) has (a) one branched piece bearing lvs and ♀; lflts silky-hairy, linear to spathulate, ± 1·6 cm. long including petioles; bracts very silky ± 1·5 mm. long; sepals ± 5·5 mm. long; (b) one branched fruiting piece; achenes densely pilose; styles ± 2 cm. long.

Examples of Complex

1. Specimens in W labelled by Petrie "C. quadribracteolata Col. Hawke's Bay Lowlands, W. Colenso. Co-type." Branchlets barely 1 mm. diam., glabrate, 3-foliolate; petioles almost filiform, up to 3·5 cm. long. Lflts 5-8 × 1 mm., lanceolate-oblong, acute to apiculate; sub-floral lflts narrow-ovate, apiculate. Fls mostly solitary on densely pubescent-pilose peduncles c. 2 cm. long; upper pair of bracts densely pubescent-pilose without, oblong, very obtuse, c. 3 mm. long, connate to halfway. Sepals of ♂ purplish, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, c. 1 cm. long, pubescent without, glabrate within. Achenes (submature) pubescent-pilose, 1·5-2 mm. long, ovoid; styles c. 2 cm. long.

2. BD 69878. Hauhangaroa Range, A. P. Druce. Determined by A. P. D. as C. quadribracteolata. Branchlets 1 mm. diam., glabrate. Lvs 3-foliolate with slender petioles ± 2 cm. long, sparsely pubescent. Lflts obovate, up to 4 mm. long; some lflts 2-3-lobed or again 3-foliolate. Peduncles up to 3·5 cm. long, ± pubescent-pilose; bracts pubescent-pilose, c. 4 mm. long, oblong, obtuse, connate towards base. Achenes ovoid, pilose-pubescent, c. 3 mm. long; styles up to 3 cm. long.

3. BD 76929 and 76930. Tributary of Upper Clarence R. on Coprosma propinqua, H. H. Allan. Det. by H. H. A. as C. marata. Branchlets 1·5 mm. diam., sparsely hairy. Lvs 3-foliolate on glab. petioles c. 2 cm. long. Lflts again 3-foliolate or 3-lobed, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate to obovate, up to 8 mm. long. Fls in fascicles of 2-3 on ± pubescent peduncles up to 4 cm. long. Upper bracts up to 1·5 cm. long, ovate-oblong, petiolate, free or connate at very base. Achenes ovoid to ellipsoid, reddish brown, 3-4 cm. long, margins thickened, glab. when mature; styles c. 2.5 cm. long. A common form of achene, but not definitely correlated with the other characters.

4. Tuapeka Mouth, D. Petrie; herb. T. Kirk in W. Doubtfully attributed by Kirk to C. quadribracteolata. Branchlets 1-2 mm. diam., glabrate. Lvs reduced to slender petioles c. 1 cm. long. Fls solitary on slender pubescent peduncles 5 mm. or less long. Upper bracts ovate-oblong, connate below, 2-3 mm, long, pubescent. ♂ with narrow-linear acuminate sparsely silky-hairy sepals c. 8 mm. long.

5. BD 76936. Luggate, on Coprosma propinqua, H. H. Allan. Branchlets 1-2 mm. diam., glabrate. Lvs 3-foliolate on glabrous petioles up to 3 cm. long. Lateral lflts up to 1 cm. long, obovate to oblong, entire or with 1-2 lobes. Fls mostly solitary on glabrate peduncles up to 5 cm. long. Upper bracts up to 2 cm. long, including petiole; lamina up to 1·5 cm. × 5 mm., about elliptic, glabrate. Achenes (submature) ovoid to ellipsoid, glab., brown with paler thickened margins, c. 4 mm. long; styles c. 3·5 cm. long.

6. BD 76927. Shores of Lake Wanaka on Coprosma propinqua, H. H. Allan. Branchlets 1-2 mm. diam., glabrate. Lvs diverse, on slender glab. petioles up to 2 cm. long: (a). 1-foliolate; lamina up to 1·5 × 1 cm., ovate to oblong, apiculate, glab.; (b) 1-foliolate; lamina with 1-2 broad lobes; (c) 3-foliolate. Fls solitary on ± pilose-pubescent peduncles up to 3 cm. long. Upper bracts c. 3 mm. long, pubescent, connate to halfway. Achenes ovoid to ellipsoid, 3-4 mm. long, brown, glabrate; styles c. 3 cm. long.

POLYMORPHY OF GENUS

The N.Z. spp. of the genus present a difficult problem not satisfactorily solvable by the traditional taxonomical treatment hitherto applied. All our spp. are heteroblastic, but in none has the life-history been properly worked out; all are, at least functionally, dioec., but the sexual dimorphy has been only partly studied. Herbarium specimens are for the most part incomplete, and our knowledge of the geographic distribution of the different forms has many gaps. No intensive study has been made on any population. That the diversity found is partly due to hybridism is certain. Page (see Cockayne and Allan in Ann. Bot., Lond. 48, 1934, 20) made numerous successful crossings. In mid North Island C. forsteri may form pure populations, but is sts found crossing with C. paniculata or C. foetida. Further south it meets with C. hookeriana and here numerous " intermediate forms " occur. Whether C. australis and C. petriei are involved in the C. marata-quadribracteolata complex remains uncertain.