Flora of New Zealand Series

Subdioecious prostrate subshrub, sometimes almost scrambling or pendulous. Stems very slender < 5 mm diam., to c. 70 cm long; branchlets very slender, glabrous. Petioles almost filiform, to 15-(30) mm long, sparsely hairy. Lamina 5-15-(20) × 5-14-(20) mm, suborbicular to broad-ovate, membranous, glabrous or glabrate, sinuate to subserrulate; base subcordate; apex obtuse to rounded. Fls solitary, erect; pedicels usually c. 5 mm long at anthesis, slender. Floral tube, 6-12 mm long, tubular-campanulate. Sepals 5-8 mm long, lanceolate or narrow-lanceolate, purplish at tips, sharply reflexed. Petals 0. Filaments 2-4 mm long, slender, purple. Style 8-16 mm long, much > staminodes in ♀ fls, almost = stamens in ⚥ fls; stigma capitate to 4-lobed. Berry 15-25 mm long, ovoid-oblong to obovoid, crimson to magenta.

N.: recorded at some 20 localities from North Cape area to Reef Point on W. coast and N. Coromandel Peninsula on E. coast.

Endemic.

Sandy, gravelly, or rocky places just above high-tide mark, sometimes submerged by exceptionally high tides.

FL Oct-Feb.

The erect fl., as well as the broad and large crimson ovoid-oblong or obovoid frs, set F. procumbens apart from other members of sect. Skinnera.