Vine often forming tangled masses of wiry branches. Branchlets with several longitudinal ridges. Leaves variable in shape and size, 5-20 mm long, stalks to 1cm long. Sheath soon shed, to 4 mm long. Flowers in spikes, sometimes branched, to 4 cm long but mostly much shorter; mostly summer. Fruit a glossy black 3-angled nut.
Lord Howe Island and New Zealand
Grows naturally on edges of coastal lowland forests and open rocky places of North and South Islands of New Zealand.
In gardens often grown as a hedge but requires support.
M. adpressa (Labill.) Meisn., Climbing Lignum, with leaves up to 4 cm long is occasionally cultivated.
Source: (1997). Polygonaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
