Flora of New Zealand Series

kotukutuku

Gynodioecious, deciduous tree or shrub to ± 12 m high; trunk to 60 cm diam. Main branches stout, spreading; bark conspicuously light pinkish or brownish orange, very thin, peeling in strips; branchlets ± puberulous. Petioles slender, 1-4 cm long. Lamina (1.5)-2-14 × (0.7)-1-6.5 cm, usually lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate or ovate-oblong, usually sinuate, obscurely toothed, glabrous except on veins and margins, thin, dark green above, pale glaucous to silvery below, sometimes suffused with red or purple; base rounded or cuneately narrowed; apex acute to acuminate. Fls usually solitary, pendulous, often cauliflorous; pedicels filiform, to c. 15 mm long. Floral tube 7-20 mm long, green to ± purple at first. Sepals 5-16 mm long, ovate-lanceolate, green at first, the whole calyx turning red later, often eventually reflexing. Petals 2-5 mm long, dark purple, elliptic. Stamens of ⚥ fls well exserted; filaments 7-12 mm long, purplish. Style 20-35 mm long, much > stamens; stigma capitate. Berry c. 10 mm long, ellipsoid-oblong, dark purple to almost black.

N.; S.; St.; A.

Endemic.

Common in lowland to lower montane forest, especially on margins, in clearings and by streams.

FL Jun-Jan.

The name kotukutuku applies to the plant as a whole, but in addition the frs are often called konini. The English name tree fuchsia is also used.