Flora of New Zealand Series

Gymnococca arenaria Fisch. et Mey. Ind. Sem. Hort. petrop. 10, 1845, 47.

Type locality: "Sandy ridges at the mouth of the Hokianga River". Type: K, A. Cunn. 1826.

Main stems prostrate, rooting, often buried in sand, stout; branches erect or ascending, stout at base, up to 4 dm. or more tall; branchlets us. many, densely clad in long silvery appressed hairs; bark dark brown to blackish. Lvs decussate, often close-set, becoming patent and distant, on very short petioles or sessile. Lamina 5-7-(12) × 3-5 mm., elliptic-oblong to suborbicular, or sts about ovate, rounded to subacute at apex, coriac., glabrate above, densely clad in appressed silky hairs below. Subfloral lvs ± 7 × 5 mm. Infl. of (3)-5-10-(15)-fld heads. Per. white, villous, 5-7 mm. long; tube of ♀ urceolate, lobes ± apiculate, oblong, 1-2 mm. long. Fr. baccate, white or red, ± 3 mm. long or more.

DIST.: N., S., Ch. Coastal dunes and hollows throughout.

FL. 9-3. FT. 10-4.

Colenso (T.N.Z.I. 28, 1896, 609) bases his P. dasyantha on a specimen from "stony dry ridges near the River Waimataa County of Patangata . . . Mr. H. Hill; November, 1895." His description includes: "Shrub low, bushy, suberect, 12 in.-15 in. high, much branched . . . leaves beneath and flowers densely strigosely hairy . . . Leaves . . . broadly ovate and subacute, 4-5 lines long . . . Flowers in small terminal heads of 5-9 . . . Perianth . . . 3 lines long, sessile . . . tube 2 lines long . . . lobes . . . broadly oblong, 1/15 in. long, reddish . . . Ovary . . . subobovoid, hairy at top . . . This species will rank near to P. arenaria, A. Cunn., which, prima facie, it much resembles." Probably belongs to next sp.