Flora of New Zealand Series

Portugal laurel

Large, glabrous (except fls), evergreen shrub or small tree, not armed, to c. 7 m high (often to c. 12 m in cultivation); trunks usually several, often becoming fairly tall. Lf petiole 15-25 mm long; blade subcoriaceous, elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, 70-140 × 25-60 mm, with a blunt cusp at apex, broadly cuneate or rounded at base, glossy above and below, with veins slightly impressed above, otherwise blade flat, crenate-serrate, entire near base; stipules linear-subulate, deciduous. Infl. a fairly dense raceme 23-30 cm long with 47-77 fls, terminal or in axils of upper lvs, erect or suberect; fls fragrant; pedicels 7-18 mm long, not elongating after anthesis but often turning red. Hypanthium broad; sepals broadly triangular, c. 1 mm long, obtuse, green, ± erect. Petals 5, spreading, orbicular, 3-5 mm diam., rounded, white. Stamens ± = petals; filaments white. Fr. 10-12 mm long, ovoid or broadly ovoid, smooth, glossy purplish black, very bitter; stone smooth except for marginal ribs.

S.: Christchurch area, Larnach Castle and Titiremoana Id (Otago Harbour and Peninsula).

Spain, Portugal, Azores 1988

Coastal forest, plantations, windbreaks, shrubberies.

FL Nov-Dec FT Mar-May.

Portugal laurel is commonly cultivated in garden and domain shrubberies, parks and cemeteries, and is a useful windbreak plant. Its seeds are spread by birds; young plants are shade tolerant and are likely to occur in any forested areas in and around settlements as well as growing spontaneously in gardens at some distance from the parent trees. It is easily distinguished from the other naturalised evergreen sp., P. laurocerasus, by the ± purple petioles and prominently toothed lf blades. Although not listed as poisonous by Connor (1977), its bitter hydrocyanic-containing frs strongly indicate a toxicity comparable to that of cherry laurel.

Both wild and cultivated N.Z. plants seem to belong to subsp. lusitanica and not subsp. azorica (Mouill.) Franco.