Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: sources of Kowai River, Canterbury. Type: K, Sinclair and Haast. In fresh fls from Mt. Terako petals were warm golden brown.

Subherbaceous perennial with aerial stems arising from a slender, spreading, branching rhizome. Aerial parts ± clad in appressed hairs. Lvs imparipinnate with 6-10 or rarely more pairs of opp., subsessile lflts; stipules broadly deltoid, subacute to obtuse, c. 2 mm. long. Lflts c. 7 × 4 mm., obovate-oblong, margins slightly thickened. Racemes up to 5-(8)-fld, c. 2 cm. long; bracts narrow-lanceolate, c. 4 mm. long, pedicels c. 3 mm. long. Calyx c. 5-6 mm. long, campanulate, segs c. 3 mm. long, narrow, bibracteolate at base, pilose within and without. Standard ecallose, 7-8 × 8-10 mm., slightly retuse; claw 2 mm. long, veins evident. Wings 6-7 × 3-4 mm., oblong, claw 2 mm. long. Keel c. 6 mm. long, obliquely obovate-oblong, not pouched. Ovary invested with appressed hairs without, cobwebby within, gynophore stout, very short, style bearded in upper third, curved. Pods with persistent calyx and style-base, about 10-seeded, up to 2 × 1 cm., sutures strongly ridged, valves thinly coriac., transverse veins evident. Seeds c. 3·5 × 3 mm., brown to dark brown, radicle prominent.

DIST.: S. Higher montane and subalpine screes and bare places, east of divide, from lat. 42° to 45°.