Flora of New Zealand Series

Fls in corymbs or panicles, bracts us. falling early; calyx adnate to ovary, of 5 triangular sepals; petals 5 or absent, clawed, attached to staminal filaments; stamens 5, upper part of filament bent sharply downward in bud. Ovary ± sunk in calyx-tube, without disk, 3-loculed, style ± divided, stigmas 3. Fr. dry, splitting to release 3 cocci, each opening on the inward side by a slit or opercular value; seeds 1 per coccus, smooth, funicle aril-like. Woody shrubs with alt. lvs, us. with stellate hairs. About 40 spp. of Australia and northern N.Z. (about half the spp. erected with very brief diagnoses by N. A. Wakefield, Vict. Nat., Melb. 68, 1951, 140-143). Of the 8 N.Z. representatives 5 are here treated as endemic spp. or vars.

The Australian spp. have not recently been reviewed comprehensively and are reputed to be very "variable". In N.Z. in contrast there is, with one exception, great uniformity within each category; it seems best therefore to formulate descriptions that apply precisely to N.Z. plants; any necessary merging with Australian taxa can then be done with certainty when the whole genus is monographed. Preliminary results of cytological work by Dr. J. B. Hair have been taken into consideration; Mr. N. A. Wakefield has kindy offered opinions on relationships with Australian spp. and the National Herbarium of Victoria, Melbourne, has lent study specimens.

Fl.-buds in the N.Z. spp. appear at latest by March and are present all through winter. Lvs of very young plants often differ in pubescence, toothing, shape and size from those of adult plants. Some chemical research has been done on the saponins (Briggs, J. roy. Soc. N. S. W. 80. 1947, 173).

The N.Z. taxa may be grouped in pairs on the following characters:

Simple hairs present, stellate all sessile; ovary c. 1/2 immersed in fr., operculum c. 1/2 coccus-length, seed-length c. 1·5 × width, sepals caducous; petals 5; bracts broad, obtuse; infl. ± flat-topped, terminal, large. P. kumeraho, P. hamiltonii.

Simple hairs absent or inconspicuous, stellate both stalked and sessile; ovary at least 1/2 immersed in fr., operculum > 3/4 coccus-length, seed-length barely 1·5 × width, sepals persistent; petals 0; bracts narrow, toothed; infl. elongate, axillary and terminal. P. apetala, P. oraria var. novae-zelandiae.

Simple hairs present, stellate both stalked and sessile; ovary much > 1/2 immersed in fr., operculum > 1/2 coccus-length, seed-length nearly 2 × width, sepals caducous; petals 0; bracts broad, obtuse; infl. of small axillary clusters. P. prunifolia var. edgerleyi, P. rugosa.

Simple hairs present, stellate all sessile; ovary much < 1/2 immersed in fr., operculum almost = coccus, seed-length ± 1·5 × width, sepals caducous; petals 0 or vestigial; bracts medium, acute; infl. of small clusters, axillary and sts terminal. P. phylicifolia var. ericifolia,  var. polifolia.