Flora of New Zealand Series

? P. cunninghamii Col. In Memoriam 1884, Paper II, 58.

P. totara var. hallii (Kirk) Pilger in Pflanzenr. 18, 1903, 84.

Tree up to 20m., trunk up to 1·25 m. diam., bark thin, papery, branchlets slender, of juveniles somewhat drooping. Lvs brownish green, of juveniles 2.5-5 cm. × 4-5 mm., linear-lanceolate; of adults 2-3 cm. × 3-4 mm., narrow-linear to linear-lanceolate, acute to acuminate, rather rigid, coriac., pungent, midvein us. evident. Male strobili 1-2.5 cm. long, solitary or up to 5 on a common peduncle, with about 4 scales; apiculus obtuse. Ovules solitary or paired; receptacles us. red, swollen and succulent. Seed 3-5 mm. long, narrow-ovoid, pointed, nutlike.

DIST.: N., S., St. Lowland, montane, and lower subalpine forest.

Colenso (In Memoriam 1884, Paper II, 58) writes: "I should not omit to mention, that on my way down the mountain (Ruahine Range) from the summit, I discovered a plant which I believed to be a new species of Podocarpus and therefore named it P. Cunninghamii (after my dear old friend and early Botanist in N.Z. Allan Cunningham). Its leaves and male amentae with the squamulae at their bases were very much larger than those of P. totara and the amentae were also on long peduncles; its bark, too, was semi-papery, more like that of some large specimens of Fuchsia excorticata, and not at all resembling the bark of P. totara." Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925) treats the name as a synonym of P. totara; but the description, such as it is, fits P. hallii much better. The Colenso specimen in K (1631) has lvs 2-2·7 cm. × 4 mm. The material and the description are not sufficient to justify taking up Colenso's name against that of Kirk.

Briggs (T.R.S.N.Z. 70, 1940, 174) states: "The isolation of phyllocladene from P. hallii is therefore the first record of this diterpene in a species of Podocarpus, and since it differs from rimuene obtained from P. totara, it would appear from chemical evidence at least, that P. hallii should be given the status of a separate species." Later Briggs and Loe (J. Chem. Soc. March 1950, 958) record phyllocladene from the essential oil of a North Island plant of P. spicatus and add that this "weakens the case" for treating P. hallii as a species distinct from P. totara.