Muehlenbeckia complexa (A. Cunn.) Meissn.

TSO logo

Sponsor this page

For information about how you could sponsor this page, see How You Can Help

Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Muehlenbeckia complexa' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/muehlenbeckia/muehlenbeckia-complexa/). Accessed 2024-03-28.

Synonyms

  • Polygonum complexum A. Cunn.

Glossary

axillary
Situated in an axil.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
nutlet
Small nut. Term may also be applied to an achene or part of a schizocarp.
perianth
Calyx and corolla. Term used especially when petals and sepals are not easily distinguished from each other.

References

There are no active references in this article.

Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Muehlenbeckia complexa' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/muehlenbeckia/muehlenbeckia-complexa/). Accessed 2024-03-28.

A climbing deciduous shrub, forming dense masses of slender, wiry, much interlaced stems; minutely warted when young. Leaves very variable in shape and size, being roundish, heart-shaped, oblong and fiddle-shaped, sometimes on the same plant; they are thin, dull green, quite glabrous, 18 to 34 in. long; stalk rough with minute warts, 18 to 14 in. long. Flowers greenish white, 16 in. long, produced in autumn in small terminal and axillary spikes about 23 in. long; the perianth with its five erect, oblong, blunt-ended lobes persists to the fruiting stage, becoming enlarged and glistening waxy white and enclosing the black shining nutlet.

Native of New Zealand, often found at considerable altitudes. It differs from M. australis in its usually smaller leaves and in having its flowers nearly always in short spikes. It makes a dense and interesting cover for old tree-stumps and rubble-heaps; and it is even worth while allowing it to ramble over a common or unimportant shrub 6 to 10 ft high, which it will in time smother by an amazingly thick tangle of dark wiry stems. Hardy in the south and west; killed to ground-level by severe frost at Kew.


M australis (Forst. f.) Meissn.

Synonyms
Coccoloba australis Forst. f.
M. adpressa Hook. f., not Meissn

This species, a native of New Zealand, is unlikely to be hardy except in the mildest parts. It is a vigorous, leafy climber with a stout main stem, growing to 30 ft high in the forests, but sometimes seen trailing over rocks. Leaves 1 to 3 in. long, ovate to almost orbicular, cordate to truncate at the base, sometimes lyre-shaped or three-lobed. Inflorescence a much-branched panicle up to 3 in. long.M. adpressa (Labill.) Meissn. and M. gunnii (Hook. f.)Walp. (M. adpressa var. hastifolia Meissn.) are natives of Tasmania and of S. and S.E. Australia, closely allied to M. australis.

var. microphylla (Col.) Ckn.

Synonyms
M. microphylla Col

A hummock-forming shrub with sparse, very small, roundish leaves. A photograph of this variety in the plant’s natural state is reproduced in L. Cockayne, New Zealand Plants and their Story, 4th Ed. (1967), fig. 14.

var. trilobata (Col.) Cheesem.

Synonyms
M. trilobata Col.
M. varians Meissn

Leaves deeply three-lobed.