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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.
1. Pentachondra, R. Br
1. Pentachondra, R. Br.
Spreading or prostrate shrubs. Leaves usually crowded, ovate-oblong or linear, striate. Flowers solitary or few together at the tips of the branches, axillary, on short peduncles. Bracts several, small, the uppermost with the rudiment of a second flower; bracteoles appressed to the calyx. Calyx 5-partite. Corolla-tube very short; lobes 5, revolute or recurved, bearded inside. Stamens page 410 5, filaments inserted near the top of the corolla-tube, long or short; anthers exserted or included. Hypogynous scales free or connate. Ovary 5-celled; style long or short; stigma small; ovules solitary, pendulous from the top of the cell. Fruit a baccate drupe with 5 (or more) distinct 1-seeded pyrenes or nuts, sometimes fewer by abortion.
A small genus of 4 or 5 species, confined to the mountains of Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand. The single New Zealand species has the range of the genus.
| 1. | P. pumila, R. Br. Prodr. 549.—A much and closely branched dwarf shrub 2–6 in. high; stems stout, woody, procumbent; branches ascending, glabrous or pubescent. Leaves numerous, crowded, suberect, ⅛–⅕ in. long, oblong or ovate-oblong, obtuse or with a callous tip, glossy, concave above, 3–7-nerved beneath; margins finely ciliolate. Flowers almost sessile, solitary at the tips of the branchlets, about ¼ in. long, white or red. Bracts several, small, obtuse; bracteoles much shorter than the calyx. Sepals obtuse, ciliolate. Corolla-tube cylindrical, much longer than the calyx; lobes short, recurved, bearded within. Berry rather large, ¼–½ in. diam., globose or broadly pyriform, red; pyrenes quite free, varying in number from 5 to 10, but usually 8.—A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 217; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 410; Raoul, Choix, 44; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 166; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 178; Benth. Fl. Austral. iv. 164. P. rubra, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxviii. (1896) 601. P. polyphylla, Col. l.c. xxxi. (1899) 274. Trochocarpa novæ-zealandiæ, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxviii. (1896) 602. Epacris pumila, Forst. Prodr. n. 70.
Nobth and South Islands, Stewaet Island: Abundant in hilly and mountainous districts from Cape Colville and the East Cape southwards. Chiefly found between 2000 ft. and 5000 ft., but descends to sea-level on Stewart Island. December–February. |