''Carmichaelia stevensonii'', the cord broom or weeping broom, is a species of

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

in the family

Fabaceae The Fabaceae or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomenc ...

. It is found only in the north east of the South Island of

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. It is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

Taxonomy

It was first described by

Thomas Cheeseman Thomas Frederick Cheeseman (8 June 184515 October 1923) was a New Zealand botanist. He was also a naturalist who had wide-ranging interests, such that he even described a few species of sea slugs (marine gastropod molluscs). Biography Chees ...

in 1911 as ''Chordospartium stevensonii'', but was reassigned to the genus, ''

Carmichaelia ''Carmichaelia'' (New Zealand brooms) is a genus of 24 plant species belonging to Fabaceae, the legume family. All but one species are native to New Zealand; the exception, ''Carmichaelia exsul'', is native to Lord Howe Island and presumably disp ...

'', by

Peter Brian Heenan Peter Brian Heenan (born 1961) is a New Zealand botanist. Heenan graduated from the University of Canterbury with a PhD in 2000. Names published (incomplete list - 193 names published) *''Alternanthera nahui'' Heenan & de Lange, New Zealan ...

in 1998.

Conservation status

The IUCN redlist listed it as "Vulnerable" in 1998 due to habitat loss. Assessments under the

New Zealand Threat Classification System The New Zealand Threat Classification System is used by the Department of Conservation to assess conservation priorities of species in New Zealand. The system was developed because the IUCN Red List, a similar conservation status system, had some ...

(NZTCS), declared it to be "At Risk – Declining" (Dec) in 2018.

References

stevensonii Flora of New Zealand Endangered flora of New Zealand Vulnerable plants Plants described in 1911 Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN Taxa named by Thomas Frederic Cheeseman {{NewZealand-plant-stub