Flora of New Zealand Series

tutsan

Glabrous, evergreen or semi-evergreen shrub or subshrub to c. 1.5 m tall, lacking black glands. Rhizomes 0. Shoots with 2 raised lines. Lvs sessile, 3.5-10 × 2.5-5-(6) cm, ovate or ovate-elliptic, often glaucescent below; base cordate and often amplexicaul; apex rounded and sometimes mucronulate. Cymes terminal, dense, 2-8-flowered. Sepals unequal, 8-12 mm long, ovate to elliptic, entire, with minute pellucid glands, enlarged at fruiting. Corolla 1.5-2.5 cm diam., flat; petals = or slightly > sepals, obovate, pale yellow. Stamens in 5 bundles, some > petals. Styles 3, < ovary. Fr. c. 1 cm diam., globose, indehiscent and ± fleshy, red but becoming black with dark reddish purple juice. Seeds 9-10 mm long, cylindric but sometimes curved, reticulate and angled on one side.

N.; S.; St.; Ch., C.: a common weed in higher rainfall areas.

S. and W. Europe 1870

Escape from cultivation in open forest, forest margins, scrub and other secondary growth, waste places and garden surrounds.

FL Nov-Feb.

Poisonous (Connor 1977).

This is one of the few Hypericum spp. with fleshy frs (Fig. 55) and is presumably dispersed by birds.