Flora of New Zealand Series

Erect shrub to c. 3 m high. Adult lvs shortly petiolate, 10-40 × 5-14 mm, narrow-elliptic to narrow-oblong; upper surface eventually glabrous, sometimes with simple hairs at first; lower surface densely clothed in sessile and stalked stellate hairs, ferruginous on veins; margins entire, not revolute; stipules 1-2 mm long, deciduous. Juvenile lvs similar but sometimes larger and slightly toothed. Infl. a rounded to sub-pyramidal, many-flowered panicle, terminal or subterminal. Calyx cream, spreading; lobes deciduous. Petals 0. Anthers oblong. Ovary with dense stellate hairs at apex, wholly immersed in calyx tube at anthesis, ⅔ immersed at fruiting. Fr. cocci opening by opercula occupying ⅔ of their inner faces.

N.: N. Auckland (several places from Kaitaia S.), Coromandel Peninsula and Firth of Thames, Mayor Id, north of Kawhia.

Endemic.

Clay slopes near the sea.

FL Nov.