Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Akaroa "in argilosis". Type: P. There are some pieces in K of the type material.

Stolons rather slender, up to ± 3 mm. diam., rosettes crowded to rather distant; lvs with slender appressed-hairy petioles up to 4 cm. or more long. Lamina rather dark clear green, reniform to suborbicular, cordate to cuneately narrowed at base, ± 10-12 × 12-15 mm. or more, subcoriac., with scattered hairs; lobes 3-5-(7) often obscure; teeth dentate-serrate, sts apiculate, irregular. Infl. up to c. 7 cm. long; ♂ ± sessile, lax; bracts ± 3 × 2 mm., ovate, laciniate; calyx-lobes ovate-acuminate; petals clawed; stamens pubescent, filaments ± 3 mm. long. ♀ on lower branches, very shortly pedicelled; tube of calyx ellipsoid, lobes acuminate, petals 0, styles 2-3 mm. long. Some perfect fls may be present. Drupes aggregated, subglobose, white, up to ± 2 mm. diam.

Dist.: N., S., St., Ch. Damp places by streamsides, boggy ground and damp places in grassland from lat. 37° southwards.

FL. 10-11. FT. 12-2.

Raoul's description (Choix 1846, 15) includes: "Caulis . . . pubescenti-hirtus . . . Folia . . . rotundato-cordata v. reniformia, 1-11/2 centimetr. lata, obsolete 3-5-lobata, irregulariter dentata, dentibus haud raro apiculatis . . . Bracteae binae, parvae, lanceolatae, acutae, dentatofimbriatae . . . Fructus . . . albus, globosus."

Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 627) gives the fr. colour as "red or whitish red"; Kirk (Stud. Fl. 1899, 152) as "red or white". I have not seen red frs on specimens matching Raoul's plate.

Kirk (loc. cit. 152) describes his var. ramulosa as: "stems rather stout, clothed below with the bases of old petioles. Panicles much branched; upper branches 1 in.-11/2 in. long. Flowers densely crowded. Drupes not seen . . . Broken River, Enys! 2,800 ft." The type, in W, has stolons c. 5 mm. diam., petioles up to 6 cm. long, lamina up to 15 × 20 mm., coarsely crenate-dentate; infl. up to 9 cm. long, much-branched. Of uncertain status.