Flora of New Zealand Series

maire tawake

Tree to c. 12 m high, sometimes with pneumatophores; bark smooth, whitish or grey. Branchlets spreading, 4-angled. Petioles 5-10 mm long, slender. Lamina (1.5)-2.5-6 × 1-2.5 cm, usually elliptic, sometimes broadly elliptic, sinuate or undulate, shining. Cymes usually of 5-30 fls, to c. 8 cm diam. Pseudopedicels slender. Hypanthium 2-3 mm long at anthesis, obconic; calyx lobes very short and broad, persistent on fr. Petals 2-3 mm diam., orbicular, white, forming calyptrum in bud, caducous. Stamens 5-12-(15) mm long, white. Style < longest stamens. Ovary adnate to base of hypanthium. Fr. 10-15 mm diam., subglobose, broad-ellipsoid or elliptic-ovoid, deep crimson, glossy. Seed 1, large.

N.; S.: Nelson, Marlborough Sounds, local.

Endemic.

Lowland swamps and streamsides, forest or scrub.

FL Nov-Jun.

This sp. was treated by Allan (1961) in Eugenia as E. maire Cunn.