Flora of New Zealand Series

C. sarmentosa Forst. f. Pl. Esc. 1786, 46 (in part, not of Forst. f. Prodr. 1786, 71-fide Oliver loc. cit.).

Stout shrub, much-branched from base, up to ± 6 m. tall; trunk short, inclined, up to c. 3 dm. diam. Rarely a tree with erect cylindric trunk up to 3 m. long. Branches ± fluted; bark dark brown to grey. Branchlets with distinct lenticels and lf-scars, ± quadrangular, at first green. Lvs opp. or with occ. whorls of 3, on stout petioles 1-3 mm. long. Lamina (30)-50-80-(100) × (25)-40-50-(60) mm.; broad-ovate to broadly ovate-oblong, rather abruptly acuminate or acute, subcordate to rounded at base; subcoriac., dark shining green above, paler below, glab.; 2-4 lateral veins conspicuous, arching to apex; margins flat or slightly undulate. Racemes (10)-15-20-(30) cm. long, slender, drooping, pubescent. Fls ∞, rather distant to rather close-set, on patent very slender pedicels up to c. 5 mm. long. Sepals broad-ovate to ovate-oblong, 3-4 mm. long, ± crenulate; petals ovate-oblong, c. 1·5 mm. long. Ripe carpels 5, surrounded by enlarged, succulent, dark purple petals c. 4 mm. long.

DIST.: N., S., St., Ch. Coastal to montane forests (mainly marginal) and shrublands on alluvial ground, often in pure successional communities.

FL. 10-3. FT. 11-4.

Oliver cites no specimen as type. Lindsay (Contr. N.Z. Bot. 1868, 84) says: "C. arborea (C. ruscifolia, Auct. pr. p.) The 'Tree Tutu;' which Dr. Hector asserts is quite distinct from the common 'Herbaceous Tutu,' or 'Tutu' proper. This is a tree, with a large trunk, whose timber is available in the arts . . . On the west coast of Otago, 'great forests, one might call them, of Tree Tutu occur, and 'not a plant of the square-stemmed herbaceous Tutu;' growing, moreover, 'at all altitudes,' so that it is certainly not to altitude that is to be ascribed the difference in habit between this and the following species, (Hector)." It is unlikely that Lindsay had in mind only the form with an erect cylindric trunk unbranched for 2 m. or more. It seems to me most unlikely that Forster had in mind in the Prodr. plants differing from those of the Pl. Esc.

I have seen only sporadic examples of the form with erect cylindric, unbranched trunks, e.g. on alluvial flats, tributaries of the Ruamahanga R.; lowland streamsides in Westland.