Melicytus lanceolatus Hook.f.
Type locality: "Woods, Tarawera". Type: K, Colenso 359.
Slender shrub or tree up to 5 m. tall or more; bark brownish grey; branch- lets brittle. Lvs on slender petioles up to 1·5 cm. long; lamina membr., 5-16 × 0·5-3 cm.; narrow- to rather broad-lanceolate to lanceolate- oblong, us. acuminate, rather finely but bluntly serrate. Infl. of 2-6 fascicled fls on slender, ± decurved pedicels c. 5-10 mm. long; bracts above middle. Fls ± 5 mm. diam.; calyx teeth linear to narrow-oblong, obtuse; petals purplish, recurved at apex. Anthers connected by membrane that is produced above and cut into triangular-attenuate teeth. Style (2)-3-fid, rather long. Berries dark purple, subglobose, 4-6 mm. diam. Seeds 6-12, minutely tuberculate.
DIST.: N., S., St. Lowland to montane forests and margins from lat. 35° 30' southwards.
FL. 6-12. FT. 7-2.
