Flora of New Zealand Series

boxthorn

Densely branched evergreen shrub, 1-6 m high. Shoots and young lvs with minute glandular scales. Lvs subsessile or shortly petiolate, alternate on young shoots but on mature stems mostly in fascicles on short spurs along the rigid branch spines. Lamina 5-43 × 3-12 mm, oblong, linear-oblong or spathulate; base attenuate; apex rounded-truncate. Fls 1-2-(3) together, on short spurs. Pedicels slender, c. 5 mm long at flowering, to 2 cm long at fruiting. Calyx 4-8 mm long, tubular-campanulate; teeth triangular, obtuse to acute. Corolla 10-13 mm long; tube broad-cylindric; lobes 4-5 mm long, obovate, pale mauve or cream; apex rounded. Filaments hairy at base. Fr. 5-12-(14) mm diam., globular or somewhat obovoid, scarlet.

N.; S.: widespread in coastal areas from N. Auckland to Foveaux Strait.

South Africa 1897

An aggressive coloniser on sand dunes, gravel, and in coastal scrub and pasture, also in waste places and along roadsides near the coast.

FL Jul-Mar.

Possibly poisonous (Connor 1977).

Boxthorn's spiny habit, whilst useful for forming windbreaks and stock proof barriers, is undesirable elsewhere, and thus it is also a noxious weed. Because of its tolerance to salt spray and ability to grow on unstable dunes it is often the only woody plant present at some exposed coastal sites. It has also been recorded as L. horridum.