Flora of New Zealand Series

Pokaka.

Type locality: "Akaroa in nemoribus", Raoul.

Canopy tree up to ± 12 m. tall, trunk up to 1 m. diam., bark pale. Lvs 3-11 × 1-3 cm., lanceolate- to narrow-oblong, obtuse to acute, coriac., glab., ± sinuate, crenate to bluntly serrate; margins flat. Racemes slender; fls drooping, on pedicels ± 1 cm. long. Sepals lanceolate, ± 3 mm. long; petals ± 4-5 mm. long, greenish white, 4-7-lobed or laciniate. Stamens c. 15. Drupe purplish, ovoid, ± 8 mm. long, endocarp rugulose.

DIST.: N., S., St. Lowland to montane forest from lat. 35° southwards.

FL. 10-1. FT. 11-3.

Juvenile plants of bushy habit with flexible entangled branchlets forming a dense mass. Lvs of diverse forms, from obovate, ± 12 mm. long to narrow-linear up to 5 cm. × 6 mm., irregularly coarsely toothed or lobed. Reversion shoots with lvs mostly of the linear form are common on the branches of the adult trees.

Mr. A. D. Beddie (see Ann. Bot., Lond. 48, 1934, 29) has collected specimens arising from the crossing of the two spp.