Flora of New Zealand Series

Evergreen shrub, often semi-scrambling. Shoots angular, tomentose when young. Lvs opposite; petioles 1-2.5 cm long, tomentose. Lamina 4-10 × 2.5-6 cm, ovate, hairy above, densely greyish or pale brown stellate-tomentose below, coarsely and irregularly dentate; base broadly subcordate or cordate, forming a narrow petiolar wing; apex obtuse. Panicles broad-pyramidal, loose, composed of many small, densely tomentose cymes. Fls shortly pedicellate. Calyx densely tomentose; lobes broad-ovate, obtuse, ± imbricate, c. 1 mm long. Corolla c. 4 mm long, pale mauve or whitish; tube sparsely or moderately hairy outside, orange within; lobes = or slightly > tube, from ± oblong to suborbicular, reflexed. Stamens inserted near top of tube; filaments slender, 3-4 mm long; anthers small, well-exserted. Style c. 2 mm long; stigma ± capitate. Ovary tomentose. Fr. not seen.

N.: Foxton Beach road (Manawatu), Wanganui, and reported from Turakina between these localities.

S.E. and E. South Africa, northwards to Swaziland and Tanzania 1981

An escape from cultivation onto roadside banks.

FL May-Jul.

B. dysophylla is not generally cultivated in N.Z., but is presumably grown as a hedge plant in the area where it is naturalised. It has been previously known as Chilianthus dysophyllus in N.Z.