Flora of New Zealand Series

C. hillii Col. in T.N.Z.I. 31, 1899, 266.

Type locality: "thickets on the skirts of forests, Wangaroa." Type: BM, 1826, A. Cunningham.

Lianes with slender main stems up to 3 m. or more tall; branchlets finely grooved, pilose when young. Lvs 3-foliolate on slender pilose-pubescent petioles c. 3 cm. long. Lflts pubescent-pilose, becoming glab. on petiolules c. 1 cm. long; ovate, us. cordate at base, submembr., entire or crenately toothed or lobed, lobes often apiculate; 1·5-4 × 1-2 cm. Infl. in axillary rather few-fld panicles up to 8 cm. long; peduncles slender, pubescent-pilose, as are the very slender to filiform pedicels c. 2-3 cm. long. Bracts linear-oblong, ± connate at base, pilose. Fls slightly fragrant. ♂ 1-2-(2.5) cm. diam.; sepals 5-8, narrow-oblong to elliptic-oblong, yellowish, c. 1-1·5 cm. long, subacute, ± pubescent. Stamens ∞, with filaments up to 1 cm. long; anthers c. 1-1·5 mm. long, ovate-oblong to elliptic; connective produced into minute blunt apiculus. ♀ with smaller sepals; stamens us. abortive; achenes 1-2 mm. long, pilose, becoming glab.; styles c. 1-2 cm. long, white-plumose.

DIST.: Three Kings, N. Lowland forests and forest margins to lat. 40°, rather local.

FL. 9-11. FT. 11-1.

C. hillii Col. was described from specimens from "Forests, slopes Ruahine Mountain range, east side, Oct. 1888: Mr. H. Hill." "Sepals 5, tawny, very silky-hairy on outside, subovate-lanceolate, obtuse, tips truncate and jagged . . . anthers suborbicular or broadly elliptic, flat, tips very obtuse."

Hooker (Handbk N.Z.Fl. 1864, 2) gives for his var. depauperata : "Leaflets very small. Sepals narrowed into long slender points ― Perhaps a distinct species." Based on imperfect specimens "Nelson, Travers," this appears to be C. marata.

Kirk (Stud. Fl. 1899, 5) describes his var. trilobata : "Leaves submembranous; leaflets deeply 3-lobate, segments entire or lobed. Flowers smaller. Sepals more pubescent. Bay of Islands, T. Kirk: Okarito, A. Hamilton." Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 432) adds other localities within the range of the sp. Specimens flowering in the lobulate stage are not uncommon.