Flora of New Zealand Series

Deciduous, rather spreading, ± dense shrub 1-2.5 m high, often with suckers; stems often rather arching, especially on young plants, glabrous or nearly so; armature of numerous, mostly rather uniform, flattened, moderately to strongly falcate prickles, with acicles only on petioles and lf rachises. Lvs with 2-3 pairs of leaflets; petiole 15-25 mm long, with few to many glandular hairs; stipules completely adnate, entire except for numerous dark red marginal glandular hairs, otherwise stipules glabrous. Lamina of leaflets 10-25-(35) × 7-17-(27) mm, broadly elliptic to suborbicular, dull green and glabrous above, with fairly numerous very short glandular hairs beneath and often with eglandular hairs on midrib and lower part of veins; margins 1-2-serrate, with glandular hairs; base rounded; apex obtuse or subacute. Fls 1-5-(7), single, 25-30-(40) mm diam.; pedicels with many hispid glands. Sepals ± deciduous, lanceolate to ovate, long-acuminate, tomentose inside, with glandular hairs outside and on margins, sometimes puberulent, especially towards margins; outer sepals pinnatisect with a few linear lobes. Petals c. 12-15-(20) mm long, obovate, pink in bud, pale pink or whitish at anthesis. Styles free, shortly exserted, glabrous or glabrate. Fr. 9-18 mm long, broadly ellipsoid or ovoid-ellipsoid, glabrous except for a few glandular hairs at base, red.

S.: Blenheim, Cardrona Valley (C. Otago), Dunedin.

Europe, S.W. Asia, N. Africa 1867

Scrub-covered hillsides and gullies, growing with R. rubiginosa but much less common than it.

FL Nov-Dec FT Mar-May.

R. micrantha is a close relation of the common R. rubiginosa and like that sp. it has glandular shoots, lvs and infls (Fig. 100) and has the same apple-like aroma. However, it can be distinguished satisfactorily by the characters given in the key. In addition, R. micrantha seems to have dark red, very short glandular hairs on the lower surface of the leaflets as opposed to the paler and ± orange ones in the common sweet brier. R. micrantha appears to be rare, the only recent specimens being those from the Cardrona Valley in C. Otago, but it could have been overlooked because of its similarity to R. rubiginosa.