Flora of New Zealand Series

G. rupestre A. Rich. Essai Fl. N.Z. 1832, 207 non J.R. et G. Forst. Char. Gen. Pl. 1776, 24.

Type locality: "Dry woods, Bay of Islands". Type: K, A. Cunningham, 1826.

Glab. bushy shrub up to ± 3 m. tall; branches slender, brittle. Lvs on petioles 5-10 mm. long; lamina us. membr., pale green above, paler below (sts subglaucous); (2.5)-5-7-(9) × (1·5)-2-3-(4) cm.; ovate to broad- to elliptic-ovate, rather abruptly narrowed to acuminate apex. Infl. a cyme up to c.3 cm. diam., pedicels slender, bracted, 3-5-(10) mm. long. Calyx ± 3 mm. long; lobes ovate, acuminate, ciliolate. Corolla ± 6 mm. long, greenish to clear white; tube short, lobes at length spreading, pubescent on upper surface, ciliolate, acuminate. Anther-connective produced, lobes divergent. Ovary subglobose, style short, stigma 2-lobed. Capsule ± 5 mm. diam., 5-7-(10) mm. long, splitting into 2 mucronate valves. Seeds ∞, 1-2 mm. long, testa greyish, minutely pitted, long remaining attached to apex.

DIST.: Three Kings, N., S. Coastal to lowland forest southwards to lat. 41º 30'. Hangehange.

FL. 9-11. FT. 11-3-(6).

A somewhat plastic sp. easily modified in habit, If-size and -texture, by differences in habitat. The two described vars remain of uncertain status and deserve cultural study.

Var. crassum Cheesem. in T.N.Z.I. 29, 1897, 392. Lamina thick and fleshy when fresh, 8-30 × 8-20 mm, broad-ovate to suborbicular (both forms may be on same plant).

The type, in A was collected by Cheeseman on "Cliffs near the North Cape; not common." A specimen (BD 83660) collected by L.B. Moore and R. H. Michie, 1/1/1954, on a rocky slope above sea at Kerr Point shows suborbicular lvs ± 8 × 8 mm. on short branchlets, and broad-ovate lvs ± 2.5-3 × 1·5-1·8 cm. on branchlets up to ± 15 cm. long.

Var. major Cheesem.  Man. N.Z. Fl, 1906, 444. Cheeseman (T.N.Z.I. 29, 1897, 392) noted that "An unusually large-leafed variety is abundant on the Three Kings Islands. In it the leaves are from 4 in.-6 in. long by 2 in.-3 in. broad, but the texture is the same as in the type. It might be appropriately distinguished as var. major." In the Manual he says: "Leaves larger, 21/2-5 in. long."

Specimens seen by me from Three Kings have laminae 6-9 × 3-5 cm., on petioles up to 15 mm. long. Lvs on Little Barrier specimens have the range (3)-5-(12) × (1·5)-3-(6) cm. on petioles up to ± 12 mm. Lvs of Poor Knights specimens have the range 7-9 × 3-5 cm.