Classification
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Carmichaelia compacta Petrie, Trans. & Proc. New Zealand Inst. 17: 272 (1884 [1885])
Synonymy:
  • Huttonella compacta (Petrie) Kirk, Stud. Fl. New Zealand 115 (1899)
  • = Carmichaelia compacta var. procumbens G.Simpson, Trans. Roy. Soc. New Zealand 75: 281 (1945)
Vernacular Name(s):
Cromwell broom
 Description

Erect or spreading shrub, up to 1-2 × 1-2 m, with densely placed branches and cladodes. Branches erect and spreading from base, 10-40(-60) mm diameter. Cladodes linear, striate, compressed, erect to spreading, green, glabrous, often crowded at ends of branches, 60-220 × 1.5- 2.5 mm; apex subacute, yellow; leaf nodes 4-9. Leaves 1-9-foliolate, fleshy, obovate or sometimes ovate, hairy; adaxial surface mottled; abaxial surface green; apex emarginate to retuse; margin hairy; leaflets sessile or with short petiolule, 1.5-7 × 1-6.5 mm; petiole hairy, 8-16 mm long. Leaves on cladodes reduced to a scale, triangular, glabrous, < 0.5 mm long; apex acute. Stipules clasping shoot, triangular, 0.4-0.5 × 0.4-0.5 mm; adaxial surface glabrous; abaxial surface hairy, becoming glabrous with age; apex subacute to obtuse; margin hairy. Inflorescence a raceme, 1 per node, each with (3-)5-6 flowers. Peduncle glabrous to sparsely hairy, green, 7-16 mm long. Bracts triangular to narrow-triangular, pale green becoming membranous, 0.5-1 mm long; apex acute to subacute; margin hairy. Pedicel glabrous, pale green, 2-A mm long. Bracteoles at base of receptacle or on upper part of pedicel, narrow- triangular, green and flushed red, glabrous, 0.4—0.8 × 0.1-0.3 mm; apex acute; margin hairy. Calyx campanulate, c. 1.5 × c. 1 mm; inner and outer surfaces glabrous, green, usually flushed with red. Calyx lobes triangular, flushed red, c. 0.5 mm long; apex acute; margin hairy. Bud white to pale purple. Standard obovate, spreading above wings and keel, 3—4 × 3.5^4.5 mm; adaxial surface purple, purpleveined; abaxial surface white, purple-veined; apex retuse; margin recurved; claw pale green, c. 1 mm long. Wings oblong, longer than keel, c. 4 × c. 1 mm; adaxial and abaxial surfaces white, distal area flushed purple, sometimes purple-veined; auricle rounded, white, c. 0.3 × c. 0.3 mm; claw pale green, c. 1 mm long. Keel (Fig. IB) c. 4 xc. 1.5 mm; distal area of adaxial and abaxial surfaces purple, central area white, and proximal area pale green; auricle rounded, white, c. 0.25 mm long; claw pale green, c. 2 mm long. Stamens 3-3.5 mm long; lower filaments connate for c. 7A length and with outside filaments free for 0.3-0.5 mm. Pistil exserted beyond stamens, c. 4 mm long; style with a ring of hairs below stigma; ovules 6-7. Pod obovate, broad at distal part, dorsally compressed, brown, pale grey, or straw-coloured, indehiscent, with inflated valves, 5-5.5 × 3-4 mm; beak on upper suture, slightly curved, stout, pungent, c. 1 mm long. Seeds oblongreniform, 1 (-2) per pod, light olive green or yellowgreen with black mottling, 2-2.5 × 1.5-2 mm. FL Oct-Feb, FT Dec-Jul.

[Reproduced from Heenan (1995, New Zealand J. Bot. 33: 455–475) with permission from The Royal Society of New Zealand.]

 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. [Naturally Uncommon]
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. [Naturally Uncommon]
Heenan, P.B. 1995a: A taxonomic revision of Carmichaelia (Fabaceae-Galegeae) in New Zealand (part I). New Zealand Journal of Botany 33: 455–475.
Heenan, P.B. 1995b: Typification of names in Carmichaelia, Chordospartium, Corallospartium, and Notospartium (Fabaceae - Galegeae) from New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 33: 439–454.
Kirk, T. 1897 ("1896"): On Carmichaelia, Corallospartium, Huttonella and Notospartium. Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 29: 501–509. [as Huttonella compacta (Petrie) Kirk]
Kirk,T. 1899: The Students' Flora of New Zealand and the Outlying Islands. Government Printer, Wellington, N.Z.
Petrie, D. 1885: Description of a new species of Carmichælia, with notes on the distribution of the species native to Otago. Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 17: 272–274.
Simpson, G. 1945: A Revision of the Genus Carmichaelia (Cockayne Memorial Paper No. 1). Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand 75: 231–287.