Meryta sinclairii (Hook.f.) Seem.
Botryodendrum sinclairii Hook. f. Fl. N.Z. 1, 1853, 97.
Type locality: "Between Capes Rodney and Brett". Type: K, "New Zealand, Sinclair".
Tree up to c. 8 m. tall, with trunk up to c. 5 dm. diam.; branches brittle. Lvs crowded at apices of branchlets, simple, on petioles up to c. 35 cm. long; lamina about oblong, semicordate at base, coriac., glossy, up to c. 50 × 20 cm.; margins very shallowly broadly lobulate, slightly undulate. Panicles terminal, erect, up to 5 dm. long, about oblong in outline, branches jointed. ♂ in bracted clusters; calyx obsolete, petals 4, greenish; stamens 4. ♀ bracted, crowded; calyx obsolete, petals 4-5, greenish; staminodes present, style-branches 4-5. Fr. 1 cm. or more long, succulent, black, 4-5-loculed; seeds solitary in each locule.
DIST.: Three Kings, Hen and Chickens Is. Puka.
FL. Early spring to late autumn.
Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 638) states: "The specimens on which Sir Joseph Hooker founded the species were obtained from a solitary tree planted by the Maoris at Paparaumu, in Whangaruru Harbour." It is not known on the mainland except as a cultivated plant.
