Flora of New Zealand Series

Tree up to 7 m. tall; branches sts whorled; young branchlets and peduncles thinly clad in fulvous hairs. Lvs alt. to subwhorled on petioles up to c. 2 cm. long. Lamina entire, coriac., 5-10 × 2-5 cm., elliptic to elliptic-obovate to obovate-cuneate, obtuse to subacute, sts abruptly apiculate. Umbels terminal with ∞ fls; peduncles slender, up to 2 cm. long or more, pilose. Bracts large. Sepals c. 5 mm. long, subulate to ovate, pilose; petals linear-oblong, up to 1 cm. long, pink. Capsules c. 1 cm. diam., subglobose to almost tetragonous, 2-valved; valves woody, granulate, with deep median furrow, us. with some persistent hairs.

DIST.: N. Eastern lowland forest and shrubland from North Cape to lat. 39°.

FL. 9-1. FT. 11-5.

Carse (T.N.Z.I. 56, 1926, 85) remarks: "In woods near Whangaroa Harbour the leaves of juvenile plants are deeply ternately lobed . . . In the same woods I found two mature trees, in fruit, on which the majority of the leaves are rather narrower than usual and are deeply lobed or bluntly toothed."