Flora of New Zealand Series

sexton's bride

Rounded, bushy shrub up to c. 3 m high when mature; branches mostly spreading; young stems tomentose but soon becoming glabrous and shiny. Lvs distributed along younger stems; petiole 10-15 mm long, the upper 1/2 with tapering wing, greenish; blade coriaceous and stiff, broadly elliptic-obovate to suborbicular, 40-85 × 30-50 mm, rounded or slightly mucronate at apex, narrowly to broadly cuneate at base, pale brown tomentose at first but becoming glabrous on both surfaces, dark green and glossy above, paler below with a prominent network of veins; margins slightly recurved and entire or obscurely serrate in upper part of blade; stipules triangular, reddish. Infl. an erect, terminal, often ± pyramidal panicle, 40-70 mm long, with up to c. 20 fls; pedicels 4-7-(10) mm long, stout, brown, pilose. Sepals connate at base; lobes triangular, 3-4 mm long, acute, pilose, purplish or reddish, ± erect to spreading. Petals free, spreading, obovate, (6)-7-9-(11) × 5-8 mm, blunt, white. Stamens < petals; filaments pink. Fr. obovoid or subglobose, c. 6-12 mm diam., purplish black.

N.: N. Auckland (Whangarei and Parua Bay), Auckland (several localities, with a fairly large population at Purewa Cemetery), Wellington (Rona Bay and Eastbourne).

Japan, Korea 1982

Coastal urban sites, near hedges, shrubberies, old plantations, street and road margins.

FL Jul-Dec FT Mar-Apr.

Sexton's bride (Fig. 99) was once very commonly cultivated in N.Z. and long persists in abandoned or neglected gardens. Both wild and cultivated plants belong to f. ovata (Briot) C. Schneider which is a minor variant characterised by broader, more nearly entire lvs.

Fig. 99. A Eriobotrya japonica; B Rhaphiolepis umbellata. © All rights reserved. [Image: 4X6T]