Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Ruahine Range: Type: K, Colenso 1626.

Erect shrub up to 1-(4) m. tall; branches and branchlets slender, densely pubescent when young; bark dark brown. Lvs on slender winged petioles ± 1-1·5 mm. long. Stipules sheathing near base, obovate-oblong, ± apiculate, ± pubescent, ciliate. Lamina rather thin, glab., dark green above, paler below; linear-oblong, obtuse to subacute, ± arcuate, gradually narrowed to base, 5-15 × 1-3 mm. Midrib evident, some secondary veins may be visible, or all venation obscured. Fls solitary, terminal on branchlets. ♂ without calyx; corolla funnel-form to tubular, lobes acute, ciliolate, < tube. ♀ with obscurely toothed calyx; corolla-tube short, < narrow acute lobes. Drupe white, depressed-globose, 3-4-(5) mm. diam.

DIST.: N., S. Lowland to montane forest, shrubland, from c. lat. 39º to 40º 30'.

Colenso (T.N.Z.I. 28, 1896, 594) described his C. margarita from specimens collected on "Ruahine Mountain-range, east side: Mr. A. Olsen; 1895." The description includes: "A small low shrub; bark dark-coloured, purplish; branches very slender, erect, and drooping when in fruit . . . branchlets numerous . . . filiform, somewhat angular, thickly clothed with short greyish hairs, strigosely pubescent. Leaves few . . . linear, 9 lines long, 1/16 in. wide, glabrous . . . Flowers: male not seen; female solitary, terminal on very short branchlets . . . Corolla small, infundibuliform, 1/8 in. long, pale yellow irregularly spotted with purple . . . Fruits numerous, globular, 1/10 in. diameter, white, shining, semitransparent". The sheet in W is labelled (not by Colenso) "Type of C. margarita Col." There is a slip, apparently written by Olsen, "Is this a Coprosma? They only grow to small stunted shrubs." Lvs 10-15 × 1-1·5 mm., apiculate, midrib evident, drupe c 2.5 mm. diam. Specimens at K have lvs c. 15 × 2.5 mm., subacute, midrib and some secondary veins visible below, fr. ± 5 × 4 mm.

At present a number of diverse forms are included under C. microcarpa, though Oliver makes no special reference to polymorphy.