Flora of New Zealand Series

Vigorous, dioecious, high-climbing vine, glabrous except for slightly hairy young stems. Lvs simple; petioles (0.8)-1-2 cm long, eglandular; stipules minute or 0; lamina (4)-5-12-(14) × (1.8)-2-4-(5.5) cm, lanceolate to narrow-ovate or elliptic, coriaceous, dark glossy green above, entire, acute to acuminate. Fls (1)-3-4 in cymes, fragrant. Pedicels 5-15 mm long. Bracts ± subulate, caducous. Hypanthium 0. Perianth 4-merous; segments 5-6 mm long, ± oblong, yellowish green; corona threads 2.5-3.5 mm long. ♂ fls with 4 stamens; filaments 5-6 mm long forming a short androphore bearing an abortive ovary. ♀ fls with short staminodes. Ovary glabrous; styles (2)-3, c. 2 mm long. Fr. (2)-2.5-3 cm diam., subglobose or broad-ellipsoid, orange; pulp reddish, sparse. Seeds 3-7 mm long, flattened, wrinkled.

N.; S.: south to Banks Peninsula, absent from Westland.

Endemic.

Lowland areas, in indigenous forest clearings, margins and remnants.

FL Jul-Mar.

Allan (1961) placed this sp. in the monotypic Tetrapathaea as T. tetrandra. Hutchinson, J., The Genera of Flowering Plants 2 (1967), stated that the distinguishing characters, tetramerous fls and dioecism, did not justify its generic separation from Passiflora. Green, P. S., Kew Bull. 26: 553-554 (1972), retained the sp. in Passiflora but erected subgen. Tetrapathaea (DC.) Green for it on the basis of the tetramerous fls, the absence of an operculum, and the lack of petiolar glands.