Species

Cardamine corymbosa

Etymology

Cardamine: From the Greek name kárdamon, referring to an Indian spice
corymbosa: bearing flowers in corymbs

Current Conservation Status

2012 - Not Threatened

Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012
The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2012 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS). This report includes a statistical summary and brief notes on changes since 2009 and replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Authors: Peter J. de Lange, Jeremy R. Rolfe, Paul D. Champion, Shannel P. Courtney, Peter B. Heenan, John W. Barkla, Ewen K. Cameron, David A. Norton and Rodney A. Hitchmough. File size: 792KB

Previous Conservation Status

2009 - Not Threatened
2004 - Not Threatened

Authority

Cardamine corymbosa Hook.f.

Family

Brassicaceae

Brief Description

Forming small rosettes, sometimes with offsets resulting in patches a metre of more in diameter, leaves more or less appressed to the ground. Flowering stalks with one or few flowers.

Flora Category

Vascular - Native

NVS Species Code

CARCOY

The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.

Structural Class

Dicotyledonous Herbs other than Composites

Synonyms

Cardamine uniflora (Hook.f.) Allan . Heenan(2017) suggests there may be more than one taxon in C. corymbosa, as he defined it.

Distribution

Throughout much of lowland to montane NZ, often on fertile soils e.g. river flats and limestone.

Habitat

Heenan (2017) stated "C. corymbosa occurs in a wide variety of habitats, including crevices, ledges and shaded overhangs on rock outcrops and bluffs, among rocky debris, on stream banks, open sites in forest and forest margins, among herbs and grasses in turf vegetation, in muddy hollows, among damp rocks, on seasonally dry or periodically inundated surfaces of tarn and lake margins, and open and dry areas under manuka and kanuka forest. It often occurs on disturbed surfaces associated with bird burrows, margins of scree, eroded cliff edges, slips and vehicle tracks." It can be a weed in urban areas, in lawns, paths, bare soil and in garden pots and glasshouses.

Similar Taxa

C, heleniae, but its leaves are conspicuously hairy.

Flower Colours

White

Threats

Not Threatened

Chromosome No.

2n = 48

Endemic Taxon

Yes

Endemic Genus

No

Endemic Family

No

Life Cycle and Dispersal

Seeds are dispersed by ballistic projection, water and attachment (Thorsen et al., 2009).

References and further reading

Thorsen, M. J.; Dickinson, K. J. M.; Seddon, P. J. 2009. Seed dispersal systems in the New Zealand flora. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 2009 Vol. 11 No. 4 pp. 285-309

HEENAN, P.B. (2017). A taxonomic revision of Cardamine L. (Brassicaceae) in New Zealand. (Phytotaxa 330)

This page last updated on 1 Dec 2019