Flora of New Zealand Series

Gaultheria antipoda var. microphylla Hook. f. Fl. N.Z. 1, 1854, 161 p.p.

G. depressa var. microphylla (Hook. f.) Cheesem. Man N.Z. Fl. 1925, 690.

G. perplexa Kirk ex Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 1906, 406.

Type locality: "Open grounds on dry hills in the interior, Glenross Station, Country of Hawke's Bay." Type: There is a specimen from the type locality at K. I have not found specimens in the Colenso herb. at W.

Stems much-branched, wiry, flexuous, ± interlacing, prostrate to staggling, forming patches occ. up to 2 dm. tall; branchlets short, ± hairy when young. Lvs rather distant on slender petioles c. 1 mm. long. Lamina linear to linear-lanceolate, thick, coriac., (5)-6-10 × 1-3-(4) mm., acute, sts mucronulate, glab.; margins rather distantly and minutely serrate; teeth often with hair-tip when young. Fls solitary, axillary, on curved glab. pedicels up to c. 4 mm. long; bracteoles 3-4, broad-ovate, c. 1·5 mm. long, subacute, ± mucronulate. Calyx deeply cut into narrow-triangular subacute lobes, finely pubescent within margins ciliolate. Corolla 2.5-3·5 mm. long, broad-urceolate, white to pink; lobes bluntly ovate-triangular. Staminal filaments c. 1 mm. long, rather abruptly narrowed to base; anther-cells distinctly 2-awned; style cylindric, erect, glab., slightly exserted; stigma large. Fr. subglobose, ± (4)-5-6-(7) mm. diam., white to pink, ribs conspicuous. Base of persistent calyx fleshy, matching fr. in colour.

DIST.: N., S., St. Montane to lower subalpine open grassland and rocky places from c. lat 39º southwards, mainly east of divide.

HYBRIDISM

The spp. of Gaultheria in N.Z. besides being polymorphic have been shown to cross readily, producing "swarms" of hybrids. Hooker (Handbk N.Z. Fl. 1864, 175) described a var. a of G. rupestris : "Leaves oblong. 1 in. long, obtuse. Branchlets hispid, setose at the ends. Calyx baccate.? A hybrid between rupestris and antipoda." G. fagifolia Hook. f.  Fl. N.Z. 1, 1854, 162 was described from a flowering and a fruiting specimen collected by Colenso at Motunkino, east of Lake Taupo: "A shrub 4-5 feet high. Branches twiggy, setose running out into racemes at the apiecs, but also bearing axillary racemes. Leaves petiolate, 3/4 inch long, ovate-cordate or oblong-cordate, sharp, flat, minutely reticulated, margins finely crenulate. Lateral racemes about as long as the leaves, quite, smooth; terminal elongated many-flowered. The calyx does not enlarge in my fruiting specimen." Kirk (T.N.Z.I. 5, 1873, 340) states: "At Motukino I observed a few specimens of Gaultheria fagifolia, which was originally discovered by Mr. Colenso in this locality and has not been found elsewhere . . . Not more than five or six plants were observed, all of which were long past flowering; its fruited racemes were sometimes there inches in length, but the calyx was in all cases unchanged. Although remarkably different in appearance form G. antipoda its habits and general aspects suggest the possibility of its being an hybrid between that species and some form of the protaean G. rupestris. The cross producing these hybrids has proved to be antipoda × oppositifolia. Cockayne and Allan (Ann. Bot., Lond. 48, 1934, 35) record the following groups of hybrids:

antipoda × oppositifolia - "Some examples bear on the same plant both the succulent calyces of antipoda and the dry ones of oppositifolia"; antipoda × perplexa; antipoda × perplexa; antipoda × rupestris; depressa × perplexa; oppositifolia × rupestris. Burtt and Hill (loc. cit. 630) state of the last, correctly "We are inclined to think that the records of it are probably due to confusion with G. paniculata and with the hybrid G. paniculata × antipoda."

Hill, when N.Z. in 1928, made special studies of Gaultheria and Pernettya. As a result of this, and much further material provided them, Burtt and Hill (loc. cit. 629-635, 641-644) gave a somewhat detailed account of the hybrid groups recognized by them (I give the epithets as adopted by me). G. antipoda × colensoi --based on a specimen collected by Colenso near Lake Rotoaira; antipoda × paniculata; antipoda × oppositifolia; antipoda × subcorymbosa; antipoda × crassa; depressa × crassa -- with reference to specimens collected by Simpson and Thomson on Flagstaff Hill, Dunedin, Burtt and Hill (loc. cit. 631) remark: "The fruits are of particular interest since in some the calyx segments are wholly fleshy, in others the base may be fleshy and the tips or upper half dry, while in a few flowers one or two segments are fleshy and the others are quite unswollen"; oppositifolia × paniculata.

Burtt and Hill (loc. cit. 634) add: "The hybrid Gaultherias, like so many of the other New Zealand hybrids, set fertile seed, and a number of seedlings have been raised at Kew from the seed found on the specimens collected in New Zealand."

Sexual expression in Gaultheria has been little studied in N.Z., but Mr. H. Talbot has commenced an examination of South Island populations. He has kindly informed me of his preliminary findings. In the pure spp. examined he has found, always on different plants, fls of two forms--(a) all 10 anthers plump, erect, producing good pollen: plants producing fr.: (b) all 10 stamens reduced to staminodes, completely lacking anthers; plants producing fr. In hybrids of the origin antipoda × rupestris there may be (a) fls or various combination of (a) and (b).

That hybrids occur between Gaultheia and Pernettya is certain. Burtt and Hill (loc. cit. 641-644) describes the following, with P. macrostigma as one parent: × antipoda --calyx not or very little swollen in fr.; × colensoi-this is based on a specimen at K, from near Taupo, labelled "Colenso 2379", and bearing the proposed name "G. neglecta W.C." Burtt and Hill suggest that artificial crossings should be made to test the question; × crassa --apparently rare and difficult to distinguish form the progeny of G. antipoda × P. macrostigma; × depressaoccurs in both islands, "the swollen calyx is cup-like and encloses the fruit, thus being more like the fruit of G. depressa than that of P. macrostigma." G. crassa × P. nana is based on a single specimen collected by Allan on Mount Earnslaw, and is illustrated by Burtt and Hill's fig. 8; several characters strongly suggest the origin assigned.

FL. 11-1. FT. 12-4.