Flora of New Zealand Series

Edwardsia microphylla Salisb. in Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 9, 1808, 299.

E. grandiflora var. microphylla Hook. f. Fl. N.Z. 1, 1852, 52.

Sophora tetraptera var. microphylla Hook. f. Handbk N.Z. Fl. 1864, 53.

Tree up to c. 10 m. tall, trunk up to 6 dm. diam. (juveniles of densely divaricating form). Branches spreading or drooping, young branchlets clad in pale to fulvellous tomentum. Lvs up to 15 cm. long or more, with 20-40 pairs of lflts. Lflts 5-7 mm. long, rarely up to 1 cm., obovate-oblong, clad above and below in appressed silky hairs, us. becoming glab. on both surfaces when mature, midrib distinct below. Fls up to 4·5 cm. long, in 4-10-fld racemes, pale to golden yellow. Calyx silky-tomentose, 1 cm. or more long; standard up to 3 cm. long, wings = or a little > standard; keel c. 4 cm. long. Pods fulvellous-tomentose when young, broadly winged, up to 15 cm. or more long, 6- or more-seeded. Seeds brownish to golden yellow, 5-8 mm. long.

DIST.: N., S., Ch. Lowland and lower montane throughout both islands, along rivers, forest outskirts, and open places. Kowhai. In type cover at K is one sheet, with specimens from Canterbury (Haast 1862, 570), Canterbury (Travers), Port Cooper (Haast).