Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: "Between Lake Lyndon and Lake Pearson". Type: W, T. Kirk, Trelissick Basin, "n. 827 to Kew"

Decumbent, evil-smelling, branching herb up to ± 6 dm. diam., with deeply descending main root. Branches stiff, slender, glabrate, pale, 20-30 cm. or more long. Lvs on slender petioles, 2-5 mm. long; lamina 4-10-(20) × 4-10-(15) cm., rhomboid to ovate-rhomboid, acute, cuneately narrowed to base, entire or with a pair of lateral teeth. Fls in dense axillary clusters, forming a spikelike infl. Per. segs 4-5, oblong, obtuse, not hiding fr.; stamens us. 4. Utricle horizontal, depressed, minutely punctulate, ± 1 mm. diam.

DIST.: S. Lowland to montane open tussock-grassland and bare places from lat. 41° 30' to 45° 30' east of divide.