Ugni molinae Turcz.
strawberry myrtle
Aromatic bushy shrub, 1-2 m high, often suckering profusely. Shoots often reddish when young, later deep brown, densely clothed in short hairs at first. Petiole < 6 mm long, hairy. Lamina 0.7-3.4 × 0.6-2.8 cm, longer and narrower on juvenile shoots, usually broad-ovate to suborbicular, sometimes ovate to elliptic, coriaceous, pale below, dark shining green above, recurved at margins; glabrous except for midrib beneath at first; base rounded to subcordate; apex acute to obtuse. Pedicels 1-1.5 cm long, hairy or nearly glabrous, slender, curved downwards. Bracteoles 3-4.3 mm long, linear-lanceolate. Fls pendent. Calyx lobes 3-4 mm long, lanceolate to ± triangular. Petals 5-7 mm long, pale pink, imbricate, concave, forming a campanulate corolla. Stamens unequal, < style and petals. Fr. 8-14 mm diam., almost globular, rose, becoming dark purplish red; flesh white, sweet.
N.: around Lake Dive at c. 1000 m on Mt Egmont; Ch.: well-established in scrub amongst ferns on peaty soil around Wharekauri.
Chile 1959
FL Nov-Apr.
Strawberry myrtle is widely cultivated in N.Z. for its edible frs (Fig. 86) which are unfortunately usually sold under the misleading names cranberry or New Zealand cranberry. Long-established planted bushes in moderate to high rainfall areas have an extensive suckering system and are sometimes semi-wild. Harrison, R. E., Handbook of Trees and Shrubs for the Southern Hemisphere (1959), stated that "... in some parts of New Zealand this plant has become naturalised in open bushlands", but this record has not been confirmed and in later editions of the book the statement has been omitted. This sp. has been previously recorded in N.Z. as Myrtus ugni.
