Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Coromandel Harbour. Type: A, "5139, Coromandel Harbour, T. F. C. Illustrations of N.Z. Flora Plate 28". Endemic.

Erect, much-branched, sts fastigiate shrub to 3 m. tall. Lvs 15-55 × 6-14 mm., elliptic- to oblong-lanceolate, obtuse, entire, margins flat in larger (shade) lvs, recurved in smaller lvs in full sun, petiole to 5 mm.; upper surface quite glab. in adult plants (even in young lvs) but in juvenile plants with very fine soft simple hairs; lower surface with close cover of white sessile stellate hairs, brownish stalked stellate hairs ± regularly scattered, more conspicuous on veins. Infl. of many axillary and terminal corymbs, individual clusters compact but on longer and more branched stems than in P. prunifolia var. edgerleyi; outer bracts pale, broadly elliptic, closely hairy; buds elongated, pale; pedicels to 3 mm. long. Fls pale, c. 4 mm. diam.; calyx-tube covered with fine close hairs, stellate except for a few simple ones; sepals c. 1*5 mm. long; petals 0; style divided to c. 1/2 length; capsule c. 3*5 mm. long, nearly 3/4 immersed in calyx-tube, narrow, pale, losing sepals early; operculum > 1/2 coccus-length; seeds long, c. 2 × 1 mm., dark brown.

DIST.: N. Between Silverdale and Orewa, F. W. Bartlett; Coromandel Peninsula; Mayor Id, R. Mason; west coast of Firth of Thames and adjacent islets, H. R. McKenzie; Aotea, north of Kawhia, R. Green. Clay slopes, us. near sea.

FL. 10-12. FT. 11-1.

Although Cheeseman in his description of P. rugosa mentions "Whangarei Heads, summit of Mt. Manaia" along with Coromandel Peninsula localities, there is no doubt that he intended his name to apply to the tall Coromandel plant shown in his Plate 28 under P. edgerleyi (details not very accurate in enlarged drawings). The Mt. Manaia specimen in his P. rugosa folder (A, 5128, T. F. C., August 1878) belongs to P. oraria var. novae-zelandiae; it shows only bud, not fl. or fr. characters, and he might easily assume that its prostrate habit was due to the peculiar conditions on the very small flat top of the summit rock.