Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Antipodes Id. Type: W, W. R. B. Oliver, April 4, 1927.

Shrub up to 2 m. tall, us. shorter; branches with light to rather dark grey bark; branchlets crowded, pubescent. Lvs close-set, sessile or nearly so, mostly fascicled. Stipules triangular, obtuse to subacute, pubescent, ciliolate, sts with terminal denticle. Lamina linear to narrow-oblong, acute, glab., membr., ± 10-13 × 1-2 mm. Midrib alone evident. Fls solitary; ♂ without calyx; ♀ with evident calyx-lobes, corolla-lobes narrow, ± = tube. Drupe oblong, c. 4 mm. long.

DIST.: S., Ant. Lowland to montane forest and shrubland from c. lat. 41º 30' southwards, apparently local.

Plagianthus linariifolia Buchan. in T.N.Z.I. 16, 1884, 394 was described and figured as "A slender upright dense foliaged shrub, with long fascicled leaves. Flowers not seen. Fruit of one indehiscent capsule; capsule narrow, oblong, adherent to the carpel, slightly downy at first, when mature shining black. This distinct species is probably peculiar to the west coast of the South Island". Kirk (Stud. Fl. 1899, 242) treats the name as a synonym of C. kirkii, using that name in a rather broad sense. Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 871) makes the same disposition. Oliver (loc. cit. 46) says: "An examination of the type specimen of Buchanan's Plagianthus linariifolia proves it to be Coprosma antipoda". This appears to be the correct placing.