Flora of New Zealand Series

Cape honeysuckle

Semi-erect shrub, tending to ramble, to c. 4 m high. Lvs glabrous, with 7-9 shortly petiolulate or subsessile leaflets. Leaflets 1.5-3 × 1.2-2 cm, ovate to broadly elliptic, glabrous, serrate; base cuneate, often obliquely so; apex acute, the terminal leaflet acuminate. Racemes usually many-flowered, puberulent; bracts linear-subulate, < pedicels. Calyx 3-6 mm long, puberulent; teeth acute, short. Corolla c. 5 cm long, orange-red, deep yellow inside tube; tube gradually curved and widening to the 2-lipped, obliquely positioned limb; lobes elliptic, ciliolate; upper lip emarginate. Style exserted. Capsule to 6 × 5 cm, slightly wider in upper 1/2.

N.: occasional, especially in the Auckland area, also recorded from Tauranga and Motukawanui (Cavalli Is); S.: Port Nelson and Tahunanui, Port Levy (Banks Peninsula).

South Africa 1958

Cliffs near the sea.

FL Jan-Dec.

Cape honeysuckle is illustrated in Fig. 39. It is a very common hedge plant in milder parts of N.Z., particularly N. of the Volcanic Plateau. Grown in this way its tendency to ramble is often not apparent because the long vegetative shoots are removed. Cape honeysuckle very rarely sets seed in N.Z.; wild plants are the result of layering, as well as discarded prunings which have rooted. Large thickets which smother other vegetation can occur. It has previously been known in N.Z. as Tecoma capensis.