Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Astrolabe Bay. Type: W, Bryant.

Spreading shrub up to 2 m. tall; branches slender, ± divaricate; branchlets very slender, finely pubescent. Lvs on very slender pubescent petioles 1-2-(4) mm. long. Stipules small, triangular, pubescent. Lamina thin, of diverse form on same plant; broad- to narrow-ovate to elliptic to lanceolate or almost linear, ± curved (sts all lvs narrow), obtuse to subacute, ± cuneately narrowed to base, ± (8)-10-20-(25) × (1) -2-6-(12) mm. Reticulated veins us. obscure above, us. evident below. Fls solitary or 2 together, terminal on arrested branchlets. ♂ without calyx; corolla funnelform, lobes ± = tube, ovate, acute. ♀ with minute calyx-teeth; corolla tubular, lobes narrow, acute, > tube. Drupe dark red, globose, c. 3 mm. diam.

DIST.; S., St. Coastal and lowland forest throughout, apparently rather local except in northern part of range.

Oliver (loc. cit. 93) discusses the ploymorphy of the sp. in general and concludes: "Probably there are more hybrids than true breeding forms. . . . The drupes vary from globose, 3 mm long, as in the Mount Freeth specimens, to oblong, 5 mm long, as in the Clinton Valley specimens."