Flora of New Zealand Series

shallon

Shrub to c. 50 cm tall, usually forming a dense low thicket with underground rhizomes and numerous aerial ascending stems. Shoots hirsute and glandular when young. Lvs alternate; petioles 2-5 mm long. Lamina 4-7 × 3-4.5 cm, ovate to suborbicular, with glandular hairs when young, glabrous and coriaceous when mature, serrulate with glandular teeth; base subcordate to cordate; apex mucronate or shortly cuspidate. Racemes subterminal, to c. 10 cm long, reddish, ± viscid with glandular hairs. Bracts mostly 7-10 mm long, ovate, mucronate, reddish, > pedicels. Calyx c. 3 mm long; lobes triangular-ovate, reddish. Corolla c. 8 mm long, urceolate, with glandular hairs outside, whitish or pale pink; lobes small and revolute. Filaments hairy; anthers with 4 apical awns c. 1.5 mm long. Style = or slightly > corolla tube. Frs purplish black and berry-like but not seen in N.Z. specimens.

S.: known from one site only, Upper Hawthorne Avenue, Dunedin.

W. North America 1958

Rough grassy bank.

FL Nov-Jan.

The first collection was made in 1954 when the sp. was reported to be naturalised and spreading since 1946. Shallon is uncommon in cultivation and probably became naturalised from the spreading rhizomes which result in dense stands.