Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Tasman Valley. Type: BD 72743A, G. Simpson.

Very slender much-branched liane up to ± 5 m. tall; branchlets almost filiform, finely pubescent. Lvs on very slender petioles up to ± 5 mm. long. Lamina patent, subcoriac., linear to linear-lanceolate, (2)-4-6-(8) cm. × 3-5 mm. (greatest width when 2 lobes are subopp.); base truncate or rounded, apex acute to apiculate (occ. lvs obtuse); margins distinctly closely lobulate, lobes diminishing from base to apex of lamina. Infl. of few-fld cymes on filiform, finely pubescent peduncles. Fls 3-4 mm. long. Calyx finely pubescent, (1)-2-3 mm. long, ± = corolla-tube; lobes ovate, acute. Corolla rose to red, pale on tube; lobes ± 3 mm. long, lanceolate-oblong, acute, revolute, Follicles ± 8 cm. × 3 mm., subterete.

DIST.: S. Lowland to montane shrubland in dry areas from lat. 44 º to 46 º.

Carse (T. N. Z. I. 49, 1917, 46) described 2 vars:

Var. parviflora : "Frutex tenuis ramosus scandens. Folia valde polymorpha . . . plantarum maturarum variabilia, angusto-linearia . . . oblonga . . . vel oblongo-lanceolata . . . obtusa vel subacuta, coriacea, margine plerumque integerrima. Cymi pauci- vel muti-flori . . . Flores ± 3 mm. longi . . . Antherae exsertae . . . small creamy flowers . . . I take it to be the original Periploca capsularis Forst. f." Specimens contributed to various herbaria and those in his own herbarium (at CM) are a mixed lot. Some specimens are attributable to var. capsularis, but there are many others of uncertain status. It does not appear useful to designate a lectotype.

Var. grandiflora : "Frutex ramosus scandens quam var. parviflora robustior. Folia similiter polymorpha. Cymi plerumque multiflori. Flores majores, rubri, vel luteo-rubri, nunquam rosei, 4-6 mm. longi. Corollae tubi lobos calycis equantes vel superantes." Carse cites the localities, Great Barrier Is, Whangarei district. "usually in damp lowland situation . . . The colour of the flowers varies from creamy-yellow to a red like the flesh of a pumpkin." We again find a mixed lot of specimens contributed by Carse to various herbaria. The Carse Herbarium specimens at CM show by pencilled notes on some of the covers and other indications that Carse came to consider that both "varieties" included hybrid forms.

Two sheets of specimens in BD collected 1/1/1954 by L. B. Moore and R. H. Michie at Kerr Point, North Cape Peninsula "Amongest low shrubs, rocky slope above sea" deserve attention; they do not show fls, so that the sp. is uncertain. BD 83662 has a stout creeping and rooting stem, emitting erect stiff unbranched lfy stems up to c. 2 dm. long, finely pubescent at tips (one has a small ascending branchlet). Lvs on petioles 1-2-(3) mm. long; lamina coriac., (10)-15-20-(25) × (4)-6-10 mm., oblong to ovate-oblong, truncate to subcordate at base, acute to obtuse at apex, mostly apiculate; margins entire, ± sinuate, slightly recurved, whitish. Capsule (only 1 present) 4·5 cm. × 4 mm., on peduncle 2 cm. long. Persistent calyx 3 mm. long deeply cleft, lobes narrow-ovate, acuminate, BD 83663 consists of a slender, branching, flexuous stem lamina coriac., ovate to broad-ovate, (10)-15-20(25) × (5)-10-15-(20) mm.; base subcordate to truncate; apex acute to obtuse, sts apiculate; margins ± sinuate, slightly recurved, pale.

POLYMORPHY

As indicated both spp. are highly polymorphic. Hybridism between the spp. and vars appcars to be frequent. Allan (Genetica 8, 1926, 526) under the name × P. heterocapsa illustrated a few forms with their supposed parents from a particular forest remnant and drew up a table of the differences in 8 plants, compared with the parents. Plants flowering in a semi-juvenile stage are not uncommon.

Cockayne (e.g. in Rep. Aust. Ass. Adv. Sci. 11, 1907, 486; in T. N. Z. I. 44, 1912, 24) discusses and illustrates various examples of heteroblasty in P. heterophylla. In the earlier paper he stresses that as the seedling develops "there are two distinct types of leaves(a primary short broad leaf and a secondary long and narrow one. Between these two there are all kinds of intermediate ones." He discusses the complication caused by the occurrence of "reversion" shoots and hybrids with P. capsularis. The latter "commences its development in exactly the same manner", but "in one very distinct form of P. capsularis, further development always stops" i.e. the plant is mature in the linear-lvd secondary stage and does not proceed to the broad-lvd final adult one.

Cheeseman (Ill. N.Z. F.l. 2, 1914, t. 135) also illustrates several lf-forms in P. heterophylla and describes the life-history of a plant in his garden, from the seedling to the fully adult stage.