Flora of New Zealand Series

Herb everywhere clad in short ashy-white hairs (soft and brown in old herbarium specimens). Stem erect, stout, rigid, 3 dm. tall, 4-angled, thickened and setose at nodes. Lvs 5-8 × 3-7 cm., on petioles 2-3 cm. long; lamina broad-ovate, acute, subcordate to rounded at base, coarsely serrate-dentate, coriac., rigid; nerves very prominent below, with sparse stinging hairs; teeth acuminate, sinus acute. Stipules rather large, broadly ovate, bifid, sts cut to base. ♂ pedicellate, aggregated in short racemes; per.-segs minute, rounded, setose on back.

DIST.: Auckland Id, "on the sea beach near the margins of woods, rare".

Hooker (loc. cit.) remarks: "This is unlike any species with which I am acquainted, and apparently quite distinct from [U. australis] though I much regret having been unable, from the early season of the year, to obtain more satisfactory specimens of both." Status uncertain: the type specimen at K and one in BM look very unlike forms of U. australis so far collected, though imperfect specimens collected by W. Dawbin on the shores of Ewing Id and Carnley Harbour make some approach. Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 381) considered that "it may be safely regarded as a state of U. australis."