Flora of New Zealand Series

goats rue

Stems rounded, ribbed, ± glabrous. Lvs sparsely hairy; stipules ovate-lanceolate with 1-3 basal lobes; leaflets subsessile, elliptic-ovate to oblong, obtuse or acute, mucronate, in 4-9 ± opposite pairs, (15)-20-50 mm long, pinnately veined. Infl. axillary, = or > lvs, with numerous fls; bracts subtending pedicels lanceolate, c. 5-7 mm long; pedicels 3-6 mm long. Calyx glabrous, or with scattered, short hairs at base of tube and teeth, slightly gibbous at base; calyx teeth ± = or slightly < tube, linear. Corolla white to pale purplish or pinkish blue or deep pink, 10-13 mm long. Pod glabrous, ± cylindric, with thickened parallel veins, 2-8-seeded, 15-40 mm long; seeds smooth, oblong, constricted slightly at the short hilum.

N.: recently established in N.E. of Hawea (Taranaki), common in the Manawatu S. to Levin, also collected from Plimmerton, Martinborough, and Wellington City.

Europe, Asia Minor, C. and S. Russia, W. Asia 1906

Waste places, riverbeds, swampland.

FL Dec-May.

Poisonous (Connor 1977).

Goat's rue was first recorded by Cheeseman from the Manawatu riverbed and has persisted in that area ever since without spreading greatly.