Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: "Margins of dry woods, Bay of Islands". Type: K, A. Cunningham, 1826.

Erect bushy shrub up to ± 1 m. tall; branchlets slender, pubescent, ± close-set. Lvs crowded, on petioles c. 5 mm. long. Lamina submembr., obliquely to subfalcately linear to very narrowly lanceolate, acute to obtuse, of two main dimensions((a) 15-25 × 1-3 mm.; (b) 40-100 × 4-10 mm. Margins subentire or with a few minute teeth, in the larger form the teeth may be coarse and prominent. Infl. of solitary fls or 2-5 together. Fls 10-17 mm. long; corolla-tube slightly flaring, greenish yellow; lobes 4, ± erose and fimbriate. Berry ovoid to turbinate, 3-5 mm. diam., red.

DIST.: N. Lowland forests from lat. 35º to 37º.

FL. 9-12. FT. 1-2.

The type form, with linear almost entire lvs not > ± 2 cm. long is frequent in its area. The coarsely toothed forms may possibly be of origin banksii × linariifolia. The longer, broader lvd form may belong to Colenso's A. hookeria. Colenso (Tasm. J. nat. Sci. 2, 1846, 297) gave a preliminary statement concerning his proposed A. hookeria. The plants were noted in "dry hilly forests" somewhere near Kaipara: "in appearance very near A. linariifolia A. Cunn., though differing much in habit. Its leaves, too, are longer, midrib and petioles villous, and its numerous flowers both axillary and terminal. It is the largest shrub I have yet seen of the genus, growing to the height of 5-7 feet."