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Volume IV (1988) - Flora of New Zealand Naturalised Pteridophytes, Gymnosperms, Dicotyledons
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Pernettya Gaudich.

PERNETTYA Gaudich

Small to medium-sized, evergreen shrubs. Lvs alternate, shortly petiolate, coriaceous, entire or toothed. Fls axillary, solitary or in racemes, bracteate and bracteolate, 5-merous. Calyx 5-lobed, mostly not accrescent and remaining membranous, sometimes becoming succulent towards base. Corolla shortly 5-lobed, white, pink or red, narrow-campanulate to urceolate or globose. Stamens 10, included; anthers dehiscing by terminal pores, with or without 2 erect awns. Disc 10-lobed. Fr. a berry; pericarp fleshy. Seeds numerous and minute.

Key

1
Shrubs with scrambling or prostrate stems, sometimes compact and bushy and then occasionally to 1 m high; lvs usually > 7 mm long; filaments dilated at base
2
Small mat-forming shrublets to 10 cm high; lvs up to 7 mm long; filaments ribbon- like throughout
3
2
Shrub with ± erect, straight stems to 1 m high; pedicels 6-8 mm long, minutely puberulent
1. *mucronata
Shrub, prostrate or ascending; branches flexuous, interlacing, often scrambling; pedicels usually < 2 mm long, glabrous
3. macrostigma
3
Lvs 2-4 × 0.5-1.5 mm; calyx lobes with ciliate margins; anther-cells bluntly awned
4. nana
Lvs 3-7 × 2-4 mm; calyx lobes with glabrous margins; anther-cells awnless
2. alpina

20-25 spp., mostly from Mexico to Tierra del Fuego, a few in Australasia. Native spp. 3, naturalised 1.

The indigenous spp. hybridise naturally with several indigenous Gaultheria spp.

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