Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Fabales Bromhead
Family
Leguminosae
Genus
Montigena Heenan
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Montigena novae-zelandiae (Hook.f.) Heenan, New Zealand J. Bot. 36: 43 (1998)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Swainsona novae-zelandiae Hook.f., Handb. New Zealand Fl. 51-52 (1864)
  • = Swainsona novae-zelandiae var. glabra G.Simpson, Trans. Roy. Soc. New Zealand 75: 188 (1945)
 Description

Subherbaceous perennial with aerial stems arising from a slender, spreading, branching rhizome. Aerial parts ± clad in appressed hairs. Lvs imparipinnate with 6–10 or rarely more pairs of opp., subsessile lflts; stipules broadly deltoid, subacute to obtuse, c. 2 mm. long. Lflts c. 7 × 4 mm., obovate-oblong, margins slightly thickened. Racemes up to 5–(8)-fld, c. 2 cm. long; bracts narrow-lanceolate, c. 4 mm. long, pedicels c. 3 mm. long. Calyx c. 5–6 mm. long, campanulate, segs c. 3 mm. long, narrow, bibracteolate at base, pilose within and without. Standard ecallose, 7–8 × 8–10 mm., slightly retuse; claw 2 mm. long, veins evident. Wings 6–7 × 3–4 mm., oblong, claw 2 mm. long. Keel c. 6 mm. long, obliquely obovate-oblong, not pouched. Ovary invested with appressed hairs without, cobwebby within, gynophore stout, very short, style bearded in upper third, curved. Pods with persistent calyx and style-base, about 10-seeded, up to 2 × 1 cm., sutures strongly ridged, valves thinly coriac., transverse veins evident. Seeds c. 3·5 × 3 mm., brown to dark brown, radicle prominent.

[From: Allan (1961) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 1 as Swainsona novae-zelandiae Hook.f.]

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Bibliography
de Lange, P.J.; Norton, D.A.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Hitchmough, R.; Townsend, A.J. 2009: Threatened and uncommon plants of New Zealand (2008 revision). New Zealand Journal of Botany 47: 61–96. [Declining]
de Lange, P.J.; Norton, D.A.; Heenan, P.B.; Courtney, S.P.; Molloy, B.P.J.; Ogle, C.C.; Rance, B.D. 2004: Threatened and uncommon plants of New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 42(1): 45–76.
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Barkla J.W.; Courtney, S.P.; Champion, P.D.; Perrie, L.R.; Beadel, S.N.; Ford, K.A.; Breitwieser, I.; Schönberger, I.; Hindmarsh-Walls, R.; Heenan, P.B.; Ladley, K. 2018: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017. New Zealand Threat Classification Series. No. 22. [Declining]
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Champion, P.D.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Norton, D.A.; Hitchmough, R.A. 2013: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012. New Zealand Threat Classification Series 3. Department of Conservation, Wellington. [Declining]
Heenan, P.B. 1998: Montigena (Fabaceae), a new genus endemic to New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 36(1): 41–51.
Hooker, J.D. 1864: Handbook of the New Zealand Flora: a systematic description of the native plants of New Zealand and the Chatham, Kermadec's, Lord Auckland's, Campbell's and Macquarie's Islands. Part I. Reeve, London.
Hooker, J.D. 1867: Handbook of the New Zealand Flora: a systematic description of the native plants of New Zealand and the Chatham, Kermadec's, Lord Auckland's, Campbell's, and Macquarrie's Islands. Part II. Reeve, London.
Simpson, G. 1945: Notes on Some New Zealand Plants and Descriptions of New Species (No. 4). Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand 75: 187–202.