Stamens many. Carpels numerous, each with one pendulous ovule. Fruit a head of sessile achenes, in all the New Zealand species produced into long feathery persistent styles.
A genus of over 100 species, found in most temperate climates, rare in the tropics. The New Zealand species are all endemic, and all possess once- or twice-ternately divided leaves and diœcious flowers, the males without any carpels, the females usually with a few imperfect stamens. Most of them vary greatly in the foliage, especially the large-leaved species. These in their normal state have 3-foliolate leaves with the leaflets toothed or lobed, but all run into varieties in which the leaves are biternate or decompound, the ultimate segments being much reduced in size. These forms are most difficult of discrimination, especially when in a flowerless condition, and some of them, are probably not permanent states.
| A. Sepals white. | ||
| Large and stout. Leaflets usually entire. Flowers 2–4 in. diam. | 1. C indivisa. | |
| Slender, pale-green. Leaflets toothed or lobed. Flowers 1–1½ in. diam. | 2. C. hexasepala. | |
| Small, slender. Leaflets pinnate or pinnately divided. Flowers ½–1 in. diam | 3. C. australis. | |
| B. Sepals yellowish or greenish yellow (purplish in C. quadribracteolata). | ||
| * Sepals usually 6 (5–8). Leaflets usually large and well developed. | ||
| Slender. Leaflets glabrous or nearly so, toothed or lobed. Flowers greenish-yellow. Sepals silky | 4. C. Colensoi. | |
| Stout. Leaflets coriaceous, pubescent, toothed or lobed. Flowers yellow. Sepals densely tomentose | 5. C. fœtida. | |
| Slender. Leaflets thin, silky-pubescent, often entire. Flowers yellow. Sepals silky Anthers broad, tipped with a minute appendage | 6. C. parviflora | |
| ** Sepals 4. Leaflets minute, wanting in C. afoliata. | ||
| Usually leafless. Flowers greenish-white, ½–¾ in. diam. | 7. C. afoliata. | |
| Slender, brownish-green. Leaflets minute, 1⁄6–½ in. long, entire or toothed. Flowers yellow, ½ in. diam. | 8. C. marata. | |
| Very slender. Leaflets minute, usually linear. Flowers purplish, ⅓–½ in. diam. Sepals narrow-linear | 9. C. quadribracteolata. | |
1. C. indivisa, Willd. Sp. Plant. ii. 1291.—A large woody climber, often covering bushes or small trees. Stem stout, frequently as thick as a man's arm. Leaves 3-foliolate, coriaceous, glabrous; leaflets 1–4 in. long, all stalked, ovate-oblong or ovate-cordate, rarely narrower and linear-oblong, usually entire. Flowers in axillary panicles, most abundantly produced, large, white, 2–4 in. diam. Sepals 6–8, oblong. Anthers oblong, obtuse. Achenes numerous, downy, with a plumose tail often more than 2 in. long.—A. Rich. Fl Nouv. Zel. 288; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 635; Raoul, Choix, 47; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 6; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 2; Kirk, Students' Fl. 2; Hook. Bot. Mag. t. 4398 (a form with the leaflets lobed). C. integrifolia, Forst. Prodr. n. 231.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island: Abundant throughout. Sea-level to 2500 ft. Puawhananga. August–November.
