North Island: The typical form in various localities from the Three Kings Islands and the North Cape to Hawke's Bav, but often local. Var. trilobata: Bay of Islands, Kirk! Northern Wairoa, T. F. C.; Te Aroha, T. F. C; between Gisborne and Napier, Bishop Williams! South Island: Var. depauperata: Nelson, Travers. Var. trilobata: Okarita, A. Hamilton. Sea-level to 1500 ft. September–November.
A handsome species, closely allied to C. fœtida, but at once distinguished by the smaller size, more slender habit, smaller and thinner usually entire leaflets, narrower silky sepals, and especially by the broad anthers, which have a minute swelling at the tip of the connective. I have not seen specimens of Hooker's var. depauperata.
7. C. afoliata, Buch. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. iii. (1871) 211.—Stems and branches leafless, wiry, striate, glabrous, often much intertwined. Leaves usually reduced to petioles in the mature plant, when present consisting of 3 minute long-stalked ovate or triangular leaflets; in young plants more frequently developed and rather larger. Flowers greenish-white, ½–¾ in. diam., in fascicles of 2–5 in the axils of the petioles; peduncles slender, pilose, each with a pair of minute ovate bracteoles. Sepals 4, ovate- or oblong-lanceolate, usually acute, silky. Anthers linear. Achenes ovoid, silkv.—Kirk, Students' Fl. 3. C. aphylla, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xix. (1886) 259.
North Island: Without locality, Colenso! Puketapu (Hawke's Bay), H. Hill! South Island: Various localities from Nelson to Otago, but local. Picton, J. Rutland! Marlborough, Buchanan; Hanmer Plains, H. J. Matthews! Waiau River, Kirk; Canterbury Plains, N. T. Carrington! Waitaki Valley, Buchanan, Petrie! Duntroon, Petrie! Sea-level to 2000 ft. September–October.
A very curious plant, often forming dense masses of intertwined stems and branches several feet in length. I have not seen flowering specimens of Mr. Colenso's C. aphylla, but the stems and branches show no difference from the common state of the species.
8. C. marata, Armstr. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiii. (1881) 335.—Stems slender, much branched, often forming dense interlaced masses scrambling over bushes or among grass, brownish-green, pubescent, grooved. Leaves 3-foliolate, usually pubescent on both surfaces; petioles variable in length, 1–4 in.; leaflets small, 16–12 in. long, all stalked, exceedingly variable in shape, narrow-linear to ovate, acute or obtuse, entire notched or lobed, or even again 3-partite. Peduncles 1-flowered, solitary or 2–4 together in the axils of the leaves, pubescent. Bracteoles in 2 pairs, connate at the base, upper pair much the larger, often foliaceous. Flowers yellowish, small, ½–¾ in. diam., sweet-scented. Sepals 4, linear-oblong, acute or obtuse, silky. Anthers linear. Achenes narrow, margined, silky or nearly glabrous when old, narrowed into rather long plumose tails.—Kirk, Students Fl. 4.
