Flora of New Zealand Series

D. reflexa Col. in T.N.Z.I.  27,  1895,  396.

D. intermedia Endl. Prodr. Fl. norf.  1833,  28 

var. norfolkensis F. B. H. Brown in Occ. Pap. Bishop Mus.  9,  1930,  11.

Turutu; blue-berry; ink-berry.

Type locality: "Dry hillsides among undershrubs, forests near Matamau (S.), Waipawa County, 1882; flowering in December: W.C.". Type: WELT 24303 includes a packet labelled by Colenso: "Flowers and parts of flowers of Dianella nigra Decr/82".

Plant us. of several lfy fans together, but lateral rhizomes sts carrying young shoots 10 cm. or more from the parent. Stem ± woody, c. 5 mm. diam., lower internodes us. very short, occ. to 15 cm. long. Lvs distichous, equitant, (15)–25–60–(100) × 1–1.5 cm.; sheath often reddish, open at base, narrowed above into a strongly keeled region where the two halves are almost completely fused; lamina of tough texture but not rigid, glossy above, the abaxial surface dull and showing ∞ fine veins; margins revolute on drying and, like the keel, minutely and ± caducously scabrid, especially towards the tip. Peduncle ± flattened, us. with 2 long basal internodes, bracts ± sheath-like. Panicle us. overtopping lvs, broad and very open, the branchlets diverging at narrow angles and all but the lowest bracts very small. Pedicels 1.5–4 cm. long, 3–4 in a group, filiform, not strongly curved. Fls greenish white and inconspicuous; outer tepals c. 3.2–4.5 × 1.5–1.7 mm., the veins, us. 5, occupying most of the width, tip cucullate; inner tepals wider, the veins 3, occ. 5, close together and flanked by wide translucent white margins, tip emarginate. Staminal filaments c. 3 mm. long, the upper ½–⅓ swollen into a ± globose, yellow, papillose struma; anther dehiscing by a slit. Ovary c. 1.5 × 1 mm., sessile; ovules 2 per locule, attached towards top of cavity. Fr. c. 6.5–17 × 6.5–10 mm., globose to oblong, grey-white and dull to strong violet-blue and glossy, the pericarp spongy. Seeds us. < 6, ± quadrate to elliptic in outline with hardened funicle, black, very glossy and smooth. 2n = 16.

DIST.: Three Kings Is, N., S.

Forest floor, banks and track edges.

FL. 11–12. FT. 12–3.

D. reflexa Col. was based on plants from "Woods near East Cape, 1893-94: Mr H. Hill". Type: K.

D. intermedia var. norfolkensis was described from two "reference types": "New Zealand Kauri Gulch, near Auckland, January 16, 1921, F. B. Brown no. 162" and "Fiji Lakemba, September 3, 1924, Edwin H. Bryan, Jr. No. 534". The result is, as pointed out by Skottsberg (Occ. Pap. Bishop Mus. 13, 1937, 234), "that var. norfolkensis does not occur in Norfolk Island unless more than one form is found there and one of them is the same as the one from New Zealand". Plants from Norfolk Id, the type locality of D. intermedia, have thick, stiffly arcuate pedicels, rarely more than 1 cm. long; infls, mostly overtopped by lvs, are narrow with lateral branchlets projecting only a few cm. from the us. well-defined central axis; lf-bases are pale, anthers long, struma relatively short, and nerves in the outer tepals 5–7.

N.Z. plants vary greatly in size of lvs, fls, frs and seeds, in length of internodes, leafiness of peduncle, shape of struma and colour of fr., but all seem to belong to one sp. amply distinct from D. intermedia  sens. strict.  The palest frs have clear sap in their subepidermal cells but in most plants this sap is at first red and tends to turn blue as the fr. matures; rich purples result when a few cells remain red among many that have become blue. Chromosome number is uniformly 2n = 16 (Beuzenberg and Hair N.Z. J. Bot. 1, 1963, 56, as D. intermedia var. norfolkensis) in 3 plants differing in colour, size and shape of frs and in size of seeds; in contrast Curtis (New Phytol. 51, 1952, 398–414) found polypoid series in each of the 4 Australian spp. No counts are known for Norfolk Id D. intermedia. Consistent features of N.Z. plants are: extensive fusion of lf-sheath; minute hooked teeth on upper lf-margin and keel (tending to rub off in old lvs); lax panicle and long, slender. gently curved pedicels; anthers short in relation to filament and struma; not > 2 ovules per locule.

Schlittler (Ber. schweiz. bot. Ges. 64, 1954, 197) records D. nigra from a single locality in New Caledonia. The drawing of the infl. (Abb. 8 = Taf. 2 Schlittler 1940) appears to have been made from Colenso 1554 at K, from R. Makororo.