Flora of New Zealand Series

Plant with sprawling to prostrate branches. Lvs ± 8-12 × 3-4 cm., on flattened petioles ± 1 cm. long, acute or acuminate; margins entire in lower half, finely serrate in upper. Drupe white, 8 × 5 mm., narrowed to a broad truncate tip.

Var. decumbens was described from a cultivated plant, grown from a branch collected at Poor Knights Id. Simpson remarks: "In cultivation the plant sprawls heavily over the support of other shrubs. Flowers are produced in December and January and fruits ripen in June." The type (BD 75718) shows one infl., no frs. Other plants from the Poor Knights have retained the sprawling habit over a number of years. Oliver (Rec. Auck. Inst. Mus. 3, 1948, 234) records a "prostrate form with short, broad, sharply toothed leaves", collected on Great Id, Three Kings, Baylis, 1945, specimen in A.

Forster (loc. cit.) distinguishes two spp. from N.Z. "238. M. laetum, foliis oblongis apice subserratis laevibus glabris nitidis, corollis hirsutis . . . 239. M. pubescens, foliis oblongo-ellipticis serratis pubescentibus."