Flora of New Zealand Series

C. petriei Kirk var. robusta (Kirk) Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 1906, 113.

Type locality: Broken River Basin. Type: W, 224/560, Kirk Herb. 741, Kirk.

Shrub up to 2 m. tall, us. less; branches spreading; branchlets rather stout, plano-convex to subterete, finely grooved, pubescent at apex when young, 1-2-(3) mm. diam. Lvs 1-3-5-foliolate; lflts 1-3 mm. long, obcordate. Racemes 1-3 per notch, laxly to rather closely 3-8-fld, on pubescent peduncles up to 10 mm. long. Fls ± 5 × 4 mm., on pedicels 1-2 mm. long. Calyx c. 2 × 2 mm., pubescent; teeth minute, acute. Standard dark purple, purple-veined; wings whitish, enclosing keel, auricles bluntly pointed; keel whitish, auricles rounded. Ovary glab. Pods obliquely elliptic-oblong, (6)-7-10 × 3-4 mm., ± turgid, pale to dark brown (occ. pods are ± curved); beak ± 1 mm. long. Seeds (3)-4-8, yellowish, ± black-mottled, c. 2 mm. diam.

DIST: S. Lowland to lower montane grassland and forest margins from lat. 43° to 45° east of divide.

Simpson (loc. cit. 263) remarks: "The species . . . is a compound found in a stout and somewhat straggling form in the Upper Waimakariri River Basin and in a more slender form throughout the Canterbury Plains." Kirk (Stud. Fl. 1899, 111) described his var. dumosa of C. grandiflora as having "Stems creeping below the surface. Branches excessively numerous, 4 in.-5 in. high. Flowers as in the type, but smaller. Pods not seen. Broken River Basin. Forming compact patches 2 ft.-4 ft. in diameter." Simpson (loc. cit. 263) regards it as a "small form or state of this [robusta] species." Further study is desirable.