Flora of New Zealand Series

poroporo

Glabrous, unarmed, soft-wooded shrub to c. 3 m tall; stems angular, green or purplish. Lvs petiolate, 7-35 cm long, entire or pinnatisect (with 1-4 pairs of lobes extending to c. 10 mm from midrib) on the same plant. Lamina of entire lvs 2-7-(10) cm wide (lobes of pinnatisect lvs usually 0.5-3 cm wide, lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, sometimes elliptic-lanceolate); base decurrent on petiole; apex subacute to acuminate. Cymes 2-12-flowered; peduncles to 12 cm long and slender at anthesis; pedicels pendent at fruiting. Calyx 4-7 mm long, accrescent; lobes broadly triangular, small, mucronate. Corolla 2.5-3.5 cm diam., usually mauve, paler towards margins, occasionally white, almost glabrous; lobes very broadly ovate, acute, slightly < to slightly > tube. Anthers 3-4 mm long. Berry 1.5-2.5 cm long, broadly ovoid or ellipsoid, orange, pendent; stone cells generally not conspicuous, < seeds. Seed < 2 mm diam., ± obovoid and somewhat asymmetric.

N.: lowland areas; S.: coastal areas south to Banks Peninsula and S. Westland; K. (very rare on Raoul Id), Ch.

Also indigenous to E. Australia and New Guinea.

Forest margins and clearings, scrub, sometimes in more modified habitats.

FL Jan-Dec.

Poisonous (Connor 1977), although the ripe frs have often been used for making jam.

S. aviculare var. albiflorum Cheeseman (S. cheesemanii Herasim.), accepted by Allan (1961), has white fls and paler, more membranous lvs. This is a sporadic albino variant and is controlled by a single recessive gene (Baylis, G. T. S., Austral. J. Bot. 11: 170 (1963)). Therefore, it would be more appropriately ranked as a forma. Similarly, var. latifolium Baylis (S. baylisii Herasim.) is a variant with large simple lvs, from the Three Kings Is. However, this plant does form a discrete population on the Three Kings and remains readily identifiable in cultivation, although intermediate plants occur elsewhere in the N. Auckland region.

S. aviculare is cultivated in N.Z. and elsewhere, mainly E. Europe, for its steroid precursors.