Flora of New Zealand Series

Russian vine

Vigorous, perennial, ± woody climber, often forming dense masses of twining leafy branches, glabrous except for infl. axes. Petiole slender, 1-3 cm long. Lamina 1.5-5.5 × 1-3.5 cm, usually ovate-sagittate, entire; base truncate to broadly cordate; apex acute to cuspidate; lvs on flowering shoots often ovate or narrow-ovate. Ochreae c. 5 mm long, obliquely truncate but soon deeply split. Panicles large and diffuse, terminal, often in dense, ± pendulous masses, with numerous fragrant, white fls. Peduncles ribbed, minutely puberulous on ridges. Bracts < pedicels, membranous except for narrow greenish keel. Pedicels 3-6 mm long, with collar-like joint in lower part, winged above. Perianth 2-5 mm long at anthesis, accrescent; inner segments appearing obovate because of attenuate base; outer segments oblong-ovate, with a greenish keel. Stamens enclosed in the shorter inner perianth segments; filaments hairy. Fruiting perianth broadly winged, white or slightly pinkish. Nut c. 4 mm long, glossy black, finely granular, strongly, obtusely 3-angled.

N.: Maketu and Whakatane (Bay of Plenty); S.: Canterbury (one collection from Christchurch and one from the Ashley R. near Rangiora), Otago Peninsula.

W. China and Tibet 1968

Usually on herbs and shrubs in waste places, on banks and roadsides, in and around settlements.

FL Oct-Mar.

Russian vine is a rather uncommon cultivated plant which has escaped from cultivation in a few places. The N.Z. plant has often been referred to Polygonum baldschuanicum Regel, but this is a closely related sp. from the S. Asiatic region of the U.S.S.R. and has bright pink fls and glabrous peduncles.

F. aubertii has also been recorded in N.Z. as Bilderdyckia aubertii and Polygonum aubertii.