Flora of New Zealand Series

Pigmy Pine.

Type locality: Mount Tongariro.

Type: K, Bidwill (with drawing).

Prostrate to sublianoid shrub with branches c. 2-5 mm. diam. towards base, up to 1 m. long or more; branchlets ∞, very slender, flexuous. Lvs polymorphic; of juveniles 5-12 mm. long, subulate to narrow-linear, acute, flat, often curved; later lvs lessening to 2-3 mm. long (often flowering and fruiting in this stage); fully adult lvs 1-2 mm. long, appressed, imbricating, oblong-ovate, obtuse, keeled; branchlets often showing admixture of lf-forms. Plants often monoec.; male strobili solitary, terminal, sessile, up to 8 mm. long; apiculus broadly triangular, acute. Ovule solitary, terminal; receptacle swollen, crimson, succulent, rarely dry; seed 3-5 mm. long, nutlike, oblong-cylindrical, obtuse, with stout, curved apiculus, far exserted beyond epimatium. Aril red.

DIST.: N., S., St. Montane and subalpine scrub and moorland from lat. 39° southwards, also lowland in St.

Apparently sterile hybrids from Arthur Pass, S., show stout main stems, sts developed as a prostrate to suberect trunk up to 1 dm. diam.