Flora of New Zealand Series

Type sp.: N. arboreum.

Monoec. or dioec. shrubs or trees with digitately compound lvs or unifoliolate in adult stage by reduction. Fls 5-merous, in compound or rarely simple umbels; calyx minute, truncate or toothed; ovary 2-loculed; styles 2, connate only at very base, finally reflexed; frs ± compressed; seeds 1 per locule. Endemic to N.Z.

Miquel (Fl. Ind. Bat. 1, 1856, 765) included under his genus Nothopanax plants from southern Asia, Oceania, N.Z. Only the 5 asiatic spp. were referred to by name. Harms (Pflanzenfam. 3 (8), 1894, 45) transferred 4 of these to Polyscias J. R. et G. Forst. (Char. Gen. Pl. 1776, 63, t. 32) leaving N. cochleatum (Lam.) Miq. in Nothopanax. Sprague and Green (Kew Bull. 1933, 154) accepted the treament of Harms and accepted N. cochleatum as the type of Nothopanax Miq. emend. Harms. Fosberg (Occ. Pap. Univ. Hawaii 46, 1948, 9) showed that N. cochleatum Miq. itself should be placed in Polyscias J. R. et G. Forst., "taking the name Nothopanax Miq. with it into synonymy under Polyscias. Another name will have to be found for the New Zealand species, if they are really generically distinct." The alternative seems to be to throw Pseudopanax C. Koch also into Polyscias.