ovate, in the female flowers reduced to short and thick staminodia or altogether wanting. Ovary 3-gonous, in the male flowers small and rudimentary; styles 3, short; stigmas usually fimbriate. Nut obtusely or acutely 3-gonous, enclosed in the usually more or less succulent perianth.
A small genus of about 15 species, found in Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific islands, and extra-tropical and Andine South America. Of the four species described below, one is found in Australia and another in Norfolk Island, the remaining two are endemic.
| Leaves 1–3 in., broad-ovate, acuminate, membranous. Flowers in much-branched panicles | 1. M. australis. |
| Leaves ⅕–¾ in., broadly oblong or orbicular. Flowers in spikes, rarely panicled | 2. M. complexa. |
| Leaves 110–13 in., ovate-oblong or orbicular. Flowers axillary, solitary or 2 together | 3. M. axillaris. |
| Leaves wanting or if present linear. Male flowers in lax spikes; females in few-flowered fascicles | 4. M. ephedrioides. |
1. M. australis, Meissn. Gen. Comm. 227.—A much-branched climber, covering shrubs or small trees, or trailing over cliffs or rocks; trunk stout, woody, sometimes 3 in. diam.; bark greyish; branches numerous, flexuous and interlaced, the younger ones grooved and angled, glabrous or faintly scaberulous. Leaves petiolate, 1–3 in. long, ovate or orbicular-oblong, apiculate or acuminate, rarely obtuse, cordate or truncate at the base, thin and membranous, quite glabrous, usually entire, but sometimes panduriform or 3-lobed, margins undulate-crisped; petioles ⅓–1 in. long; stipules deciduous. Panicles large, axillary and terminal, much branched, 1½–3 in. long or more. Flowers about ⅙ in. diam., greenish, diœcious; males with 8 stamens and the rudiment of an ovary; females with 8 blunt staminodia and a short triquetrous ovary; stigmas broad, fimbriate. Fruiting-perianth closed over the fruit, slightly succulent or almost herbaceous. Nut black, shining, 3-angled and 3-grooved, angles often twisted.—M. adpressa, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 236 (not of Meissn). Polygonum australe, A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 178; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 355; Raoul, Choix, 42. P. adpressum, A. Cunn. l.c. n. 356 (not of Labill.). Coccoloba australis, Forst. Prodr. n. 176.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island, Chatham Islands: Common from the Three Kings Islands and the North Cape southwards. Sea-level to 2000 ft. November–April.
Also found in Norfolk Island, and very closely allied to the Australian M. adpressa, Meissn.
2. M. complexa, Meissn. Gen. Comm. 227.—Forming dense thick and elastic prostrate masses many feet in diam., or climbing over bushes or rocks. Stems slender, tough and woody, much interlaced; branches very numerous, flexuous, terete, the ultimate ones pubescent with short stiff hairs; bark dark red-brown.
