Flora of New Zealand Series

Cape fuchsia

Shrub to c. 2 m tall. Stems 4-angled, markedly square on vigorous vegetative shoots. Lvs glabrous, those on flowering shoots with petioles to 3 cm long. Lamina of flowering shoots 2.5-6.5 × 1.5-3 cm, ovate or lanceolate-ovate, evenly crenulate-serrulate; base broad-cuneate to subcordate; apex obtuse or subacute. Infl. of many pendent fls at right angles to pedicels. Bracts to c. 1 cm long. Peduncles mostly 1-2.5 cm long, shortly glandular-hairy, dark reddish. Pedicels similar to but < peduncles. Calyx 4-6 mm long, lanceolate to ovate, glabrous, purplish. Corolla 3-3.5 cm long, deep red outside, yellow inside; tube curved; limb oblique, the lower lobes slightly > upper. Stamens shortly exserted. Filaments red. Capsules 10-13 mm long, shining black, furrowed. Seeds 1-1.2 mm long, oblong to ovoid, sometimes angled.

N.: just south of Havelock North, and at Whakataki (near Castlepoint on the Wairarapa coast).

Cape of Good Hope area 1958

An occasional escape from cultivation in roadside grass.

FL Nov-May.

A fl. of Cape fuchsia is illustrated in Fig. 110. The sp. is fairly commonly cultivated and fruits abundantly in N.Z. P. aequalis Harvey is also cultivated and often not distinguished from P. capensis, although it has a rose corolla with an almost symmetric limb.