Flora of New Zealand Series

kuumara

Tuberous-rooted perennial. Stems trailing or erect, glabrous or hairy. Petioles long and slender, often > lamina. Lamina very variable in size, shape and dissection, particularly in the degree of lobing, usually entire with long-acuminate apices. Infl. an axillary cyme, usually few-flowered; peduncles to 8 cm long, stout; pedicels to 1 cm long. Bracts < sepals. Sepals c. 1 cm long, mucronate, glabrous; inner sepals slightly > outer. Corolla c. 4 cm long and 3-3.5 cm diam. across limb, funnelform, pink with purplish or reddish purple centre. Stamens included; filaments hairy towards base. Ovary surrounded by tuft of hairs. Capsule not seen.

N.: warmer areas; K.: Raoul Id.

Probably N. South America 1867

An occasional escape from cultivation.

Kuumara or sweet potato was the main food crop of the Maori before the European period. Several cvs were developed in N.Z. and others have since been introduced. Plants reported wild on Raoul Id are probably of a Micronesian form known as Sunday Island Kuumara, a 19th century introduction by Thomas Bell. Typical cultivated N.Z. plants have ovate, ± glabrous, 3-5-palmately lobed lvs with rounded sinuses and acuminate apices, whereas the lvs of wild plants are long-acuminate and often not lobed. Kuumara does not flower freely in N.Z., but can be easily recognised by the presence of tubers.