Flora of New Zealand Series

P. colensoi Hook. f. Handbk N.Z. Fl.  1864,  287.

P. hookeri Gunn ex Hook. f. in Bot. Mag.  114,  1888,  t. 6973.

Wharariki, Mountain flax.

Type locality: Described from a plant cultivated at Cherbourg "brought directly from New Zealand, where it was gathered in August 1839, in Chaldy (Cloudy?) [Chalky] Bay (46 30' latit. 166 23' long.)". Type: P, Le Jolis.

Lvs mostly < 2 m. long, not so stiff as in P. tenax and inclined to droop; butt us. pale. Infl. to c. 2 m. tall; peduncle c. 2–3 cm. diam., often inclined, dark, terete, glab. Fls 2.5–4 cm. long, us. predominantly greenish, often with tones of orange or yellow; tips of inner tepals us. markedly recurved, one us. more than the other two. Ovary erect, but carpels sts twisted in half turn from base to tip. Capsule often > 10 cm. long, occ. to 20 cm., pendulous, almost circular in T.S., gradually narrowed to tip, twisted and becoming pale, fibrous, and more spirally curled in age. Seeds c. 8–10 mm. long, very like those of P. tenax. 2n = 32.

DIST.: N., S., St.

Coastal cliffs to mountain slopes. locally dominant on shady faces in high country.

FL. 11–1. FT. 2–4.

P. colensoi, a name used occ. from 1846 (e.g. Raoul Choix 41, listed in Enumeratio Plantarum only), was not validly published until 1864 by which time it was antedated by P. cookianum, which Hooker quotes as a synonym.

P. forsterianum, also quoted by Hooker as a synonym of his P. colensoi, remains a nomen nudum, having been only mentioned in reference to a specimen, but without description, by Colenso in Lond. J. Bot. 3, 1844, 8.

P. hookeri was described from plants grown in a garden at Torquay from seed from Mr Grace, a missionary at Wanganui. Hooker recognised it as identical with a specimen found by Ronald Gunn of Tasmania in 1864, at "the Waitangi River, about 30 or 40 miles from the mouth, where it grew pendulous from almost perpendicular rocks, in great abundance". Capsules were described as "pendulis, elongatis, tortis"; one of Gunn's collecting at K is 20.5 cm. long, one from Torquay 17.5 cm.

Early discussions of Phormium spp. were much confused by the emphasis laid on colours of fls and lvs, and were influenced by the limited range of forms grown in gardens in Europe.