Flora of New Zealand Series

♂ up to 5 per spike; bracts ∞, caducous; per. campanulate, stamens 8-36. ♀ 1-3 on arrested spikes surrounded by involucre (cupule) hardening in fr.; per. minute, toothed; ovules pend.; nut 3-2-celled. Monoec. trees or shrubs with evergreen or deciduous lvs and caducous stipules. Genus of some 20 spp. of New Guinea, New Caledonia, Australia, N.Z. and temperate South America. The N.Z. spp. are endemic, with evergreen lvs, pubescent branchlets and petioles; lenticels us. conspicuous. Infls (staminate often reduced to a single fl.) in axils of uppermost scales and lowermost lvs of vegetative branchlets produced in spring, ♀ above ♂. The colour of the anthers is constant on the individual tree.

Poole's detailed illustrated study of floral morphology (T.R.S.N.Z. 78, 1950, 363-380) has largely been followed here. Poole in Proc. 7th Pacif. Sci. Congr. 5, 1953, 159 also sums up the evidence for distinguishing a N. menziesii from a N. fusca section, based on pollen, floral and carpological morphology.