Flora of New Zealand Series

koru

Erect to spreading, branched herb or subshrub. Stems to c. 1 m tall, somewhat woody towards base. Petioles to 10 cm long. Lamina (5)-7-20-(22) × (3)-4-10-(13) cm, ovate or ovate-elliptic, occasionally elliptic, glabrous or puberulent on main veins, sometimes with scattered hairs elsewhere, coarsely and irregularly serrate-dentate, cuneate or attenuate at base, acute to shortly acuminate at apex. Infl. a terminal, few- to many-flowered raceme clothed in short hairs. Pedicels slender, 1.5-2.5 cm long; bracts often > 5 mm long, linear-subulate. Calyx lobes 5-8 mm long, narrow-triangular to linear-subulate. Corolla 3-5 cm long, usually pale to deep blue or violet, occasionally whitish, deeply lobed with lobes acute; lower lip 3-lobed, hairy; upper lip 2-lobed, the lobes c. 1.5-3.5 cm long and spreading. Fr. 10-15 mm diam., subglobose, blue or, less commonly, whitish.

N.: North Cape to about 35° 30', including Poor Knights, and Hen and Chickens Is.

Endemic.

Mainly coastal forest margins and open forest understorey, especially in gullies.

FL Oct-May.

Although P. physaloides is superficially very different from the other Pratia spp. described here, Colensoa Hook. f. erected for it should not be upheld [Wimmer, F. E., Pflanzenreich 106 IV: 116 (1956)] because the fls and frs do not differ significantly from those of some other pratias. On the other hand, the seed of P. physaloides differs significantly from all other N.Z. spp. (M. J. A. Bulfin pers. comm.).