Elytranthe flavida (Hook.f.) Engl.
Loranthus flavidus Hook. f. Fl. N.Z. 1, 1853, 100.
Alepis flavida (Hook. f.) Tiegh. loc. cit. 41, 1894, 489.
Type locality: Ruahine Range. Type: K, "Col. 1523 on Fagus, half-way up Ruahines".
Rather openly branched glab. shrub up to ± 1 m. tall; branchlets subterete. Lvs opp. on slender flattened petioles up to 5 mm. long. Lamina narrow-oblong to narrow-elliptic, thick, coriac.; veins us. distinct on lower surface; margins thickened, ± crenulate. Infl. of (5)-10-15-fld axillary racemose cymes; axis up to c. 5 cm. long, rather slender; pedicels opp. and decussate, 2-5 mm. long, very slender, ± tetragonous. Bracts obsolete. Receptacle-rim with minute teeth or truncate. Tepals ± 1-2 cm. long, orange-yellow to yellow, inflated above base, splitting almost to middle, linear-spathulate. Anthers very narrow-oblong; styles us. slightly > tepals, stigma large, capitate. Fr. turbinate to ± ovoid, 4-5 mm. long.
DIST.: N., S. Not uncommon on Nothofagus from lat. 37° 30' southwards.
HYBRIDISM
Cockayne and Allan (Ann. Bot., Lond. 48, 1934, 20) list the hybrid groups E. flavida × colensoi (with doubt) and E. flavida × tetrapetala. But in the genus in general there is considerable diversity of lf-form and fl.-colour, and neither cross is well-established.
FL. 12-2. FT. 1-(6).
L. polychroa Col. in T.N.Z.I. 17, 1885, 241 is described as with "leaves 2-21/2 inches long, 7-10 lines broad . . . margins . . . regularly and finely tuberculated . . . flowers bright orangered . . . on trunks of Fagus solandri; woods near Norsewood . . . but scarce; March 1884: W.C." Colenso had only fallen material.
