Flora of New Zealand Series

Type: BD 45814C (G. S. 244), W. L. McCaskill.

Decumbent much-branched slender shrub with branches up to c. 1 m. long; branchlets ascending, c. 1 mm. wide, compressed, striate, sparsely hairy. Lvs 1-3-foliolate, ± hairy; lflts 3-5 mm. long, narrow, emarginate. Infl. of 1-3, 5-10-fld racemes on pilose peduncles c. 6 mm. long. Fls c. 3 × 2 mm., on pilose pedicels c. 1 mm. long. Calyx sparsely hairy; teeth short, blunt. Standard white, with purplish basal blotch and veins; keel whitish, purple-veined, auricles bluntly pointed. Ovary glab. or nearly so. Pods ± 4 × 1·5 mm., obliquely oblong, slightly compressed, black; beak subulate, curved, obliquely placed. Seeds 2-4, pale brown, reniform, c. 1·5 mm. long.

DIST.: S. "Flood bed margins at the Makarora R., L. Wanaka".

HYBRIDISM

Cockayne and Allan (Ann. Bot., Lond. 48, 1934, 26) listed, with doubt, C. monroi × subulata, for plants resembling C. hollowayi in habit. With equal doubt they listed C. robusta × subulata for plants "more or less midway between C. subulata and a form of C. robusta common in certain parts of the central montane belt of the eastern ranges of the Southern Alps". Simpson, with very considerable experience in the field, concluded (loc. cit. 235) that "Hybrids between the species are certain to occur, but sufficient meantime that no special study has been made and no evidence of hybridism has emerged." He was strongly of the opinion that no sp. occurs in both North and South Is.

Laing (in Laing and Blackwell Plants of N.Z. ed. 4, 1940, 219) suggested that Chordospartium "is possibly a hybrid between Notospartium and Carmichaelia". Slade (loc. cit. 96) remarks: "The other possibility implied even in the similarities listed by Cheeseman is its derivation from the hybridisation of Notospartium and Corallospartium. The anatomical evidence strongly favours this alternative and in this case the few Carmichaelian features of Chordospartium could easily be derived from either parent, since both are probably descended from Carmichaelia."

Slade (loc. cit. passim) gives anatomical evidence on the whole supporting Simpson's division of Carmichaelia into subgenera, and (Text-fig. 10, p. 95) suggests the evolution of the different cladode types from Kirkiella.

Simpson adds: "The shrub flowers in profusion, and in fruit its many black pods are very conspicuous. A similar plant occurs on the upper flats of the Haast River, but specimens are needed for its indentification." His var. tenuis (loc. cit. 286) is based on specimens from "Old flood beds at the Waiho and Cook Rivers, Westland". The type specimen is BD 45816B (G. S. 155) "old river bed Waiho R. Peter Graham and M. Bradley". Simpson gives a long description, the essential points being: "A long trailing prostrate shrub spreading to about 1 m. length . . . branchlets spreading . . . filiform . . . at the tips . . . Racemes . . . 4-8 flowered . . . Flowers 4 mm. long, 3 mm. broad." He adds: "The long, trailing, prostrate habit and the stout racemes and pedicels best separate var. tenuis from the species." I have examined only herbarium material and cannot find any significant differences.