Flora of New Zealand Series

Suttonia chathamcia (F. Muell) Mez in Pflanzenr. 9, 1902, 333.

Rapanea chathamica (F. Muell.) W. R. B Oliver loc. cit. 112.

Tree up to ± 6 m. tall; bark dark, branchlets clad in short stiff hairs. Lvs on petioles ± 5 mm. long. Lamina 2-7·5 × 1·5-4 cm., flat, obovate to elliptic or broad-elliptic, obtuse (occ. lvs emarginate), entire, coriac., sts pubescent on midnerve. Infl. of several-fld fascicles or fls occ. solitary. Fls ± 3 mm. diam., unisexual; pedicels up to 6·5 mm. long in fr. Calyx-lobes 4, deltoid, ciliolate; petals 4, free, oblong, fimbriate; stigma sessile, capitate. Fr. (5)-9 mm. diam., purplish.

DIST.: Ch. Swamp forest, common.

FL.- FT. 8-1.

Closely allied, probably conspecific, forms occur in S.--Red Hill, Mineral Belt, A. R. Wastney; Whangamoa Valley, E. C. Jeffrey and L. Cockayne; Otago Heads; St.--Wilson Bay and Old Neck, Kirk and others; Mutton-bird Is, H. Guthrie-Smith; Long Id, Poppelwell. The complex has not yet been sufficiently studied. Lvs of seedlings of the Chatham Id plants are serrate-dentate in upper half. There is some evidence that M. chathamica hybridizes with M. coxii.