Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Probably Mercury Bay. Type: BM, Banks et Solander, 1769.

Robust tufted plant. Lvs 100–250 × 3–4.5 cm., ascending in lower half, drooping in upper half, hardly coriaceous; margins revolute in age; just above sheath narrow, keeled and tightly folded; tip long-attenuate; sheath broad, clad on both surfaces in shining white, closely overlapping scales; lamina adaxially slightly bluish green and covered with a clear pellicle of fused scales that lifts off in long strips, abaxially white with appressed or ± cobwebby scales, the several nerves on each side of midrib subequal. Infl. at first erect, ultimately drooping, most parts covered with ± ruffled white scales; peduncle to 40 × 1 cm.; panicle to 50 cm. long; racemes ∞, all except the smallest spathes subtending sub-infls of 3 or more racemes. Fls pedicellate and us. well spaced; per. very pale greenish cream, divided almost to base; tepals to 5.5 × 2 mm., spreading widely and soon reflexed in ♂, in ♀ smaller and more erect. Ovary 3-locular; style short and thick. Fr. c. 8 × 6.5 mm., opaque, bright green, then whitish, most or all of surface becoming flushed with magenta on ripening, the base surrounded by flattened, dry, membr. brownish per. Seeds c. 1.8 × 1.1 mm., dull black, the surface composed of flat faces meeting along ± sharp edges, the funicular end very slightly ornamented. n = 35.

DIST.: N. North of c. lat. 38º.

Coastal, or occ. on inland cliffs exposed to winds off sea.

FL. 3–4–6. FT. 1–12.

South Id records have not been confirmed. Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 316) lists Westport, but the supporting specimen (AK 3182, male infl. + lf) is A. solandri. Two fruiting panicles labelled "Kaikoura J.B.A. 1869" in Herb. Armstrong at CANTY are certainly A. banksii but in the absence of any other records an error in labelling is suspected.

A. richardii Kunth Enum. Pl.  3,  1841,  365, listed by Skottsberg as a synonym of A. banksii, was based on Hamelinia veratroides Rich. Essai Fl. N.Z.  1832,  158, t. 24 non Astelia veratroides Gaud. Freyc. Voy. Bot.  1829,  420.

A. latifolia Jacques in J. Soc. imper. Centr. Hort. Paris  8,  1862,  344, also listed by Skottsberg as a synonym of A. banksii, was presumably based on garden plants. Skottsberg states: "A. banksii has long been in cultivation and is often seen in a temperate house" and he records the sp. in gardens at Gothenburg and at Uppsala.