Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Dobson River above L. Ohau. Type: BD 45572A (G. S. 105) G. Simpson.

Shrub up to c. 1 m. tall; branches stout, spreading; branchlets spreading, stiff, ± 2-3 mm. wide, plano-convex, grooved, glab. to ± pilose. Lvs 3-5-(7)-foliolate; lflts subsessile, obcordate-cuneate. Racemes 1-3 per notch, 4-6-fld, on pilose peduncles up to 15 mm. long. Fls ± 4 × 3 mm., on slender pilose to pubescent pedicels c. 2 mm. long. Calyx ± 2 × 1 mm., glab. or nearly so; teeth minute, narrow-triangular, ciliolate. Standard dark purplish red, lobes red-veined; keel ± 1 mm. long, whitish, purplish at apex, auricles bluntly pointed; wings white, purplish at apex, auricles bluntly pointed. Ovary glab. Pods 8-10 × 3-4 mm., obliquely elliptic-oblong (some pods may be ± arcuate), slightly compressed, very dark brown to black; beak c. 1 mm. long, rather stout. Seeds 2-4, quite black to yellow-green and very heavily black-mottled.

DIST.: S. Montane riverbeds, moraines, terraces, rocky places in drainage areas of Lakes Tekapo, Pukaki and Ohau.

Very closely related to C. petriei var. minor, but the valves early completely dehiscent.