Flora of New Zealand Series

red cestrum

Shrub 2-4 m high. Shoots and petioles densely covered in purplish hairs. Petiole to 4 cm long. Lamina 4-15 × 2.5-7.5 cm, narrow- to broad-ovate or ovate-elliptic, hairy; base cuneate to rounded; apex acute or shortly acuminate. Panicle dense; peduncles purple, hairy; fls sessile or subsessile, scentless. Calyx 0.7-1 cm long, hairy outside; lobes c. 2 mm long, ± triangular, acute. Corolla (1.2)-1.5-2-(2.5) cm long, scarlet; tube funnelform with cylindric base, constricted at apex, densely hairy outside; lobes, 2-3-(6) mm long, short-acuminate, densely hairy outside, glabrous inside. Fr. uncommon, 0.7-1.4 cm diam., ± subglobose to broad-obovoid, dark red.

FL Aug-Mar.

Two entities are wild in N.Z.