Shrub up to c. 5 m. tall, with spreading branches; branchlets subterete, ± pubescent. Lvs sts fascicled, on puberulous petioles hardly 1 mm. long; lamina ± 5-10 × 5-10 mm., obcordate, cuneately narrowed to base, glab. except sts when young. Fls axillary, solitary, ± 6 mm. diam., on very slender pubescent peduncles ± 10-20 mm. long. Receptacle adnate to ovary, ± gland-dotted; sepals oblong, acute, pubescent; petals white, suborbicular. Berry broad-ovate c. 6-7 × 5 mm., bright to dark red, occ. violet. Seeds reniform, testa hard.

DIST.: N., S. Coastal to lowland forest from lat. 35° southwards, rather local.

Type locality: Akaroa. Type: P, Raoul.

HYBRIDISM

Myrtus ralphii Hook. f. Fl. N.Z. 2, 1855, 329 was described from material collected by Ralph "woods at Wellington" and Colenso "forests near the East Coast". Hooker remarks: "Very nearly allied to M. bullata, but with narrower, less coriaceous, flat leaves and smaller flowers." Cockayne (T.N.Z.I. 50, 1918, 179), after examining many specimens from near Wellington and New Plymouth and Colenso's specimens in W, concluded that specimens hitherto placed under M. ralphii were of the origin M. bullata × obcordata, and that in the field a polymorphic series of hybrids were usually to be found where the parents met. Allan (Genetica 11, 1929, 491) illustrated some of the very many forms found in a forest remnant near Feilding, where both parents were common. Seedlings from an intermediate form produced a complete range from nearly pure obcordata to nearly pure bullata, with several forms that matched the original M. ralphii specimens.