Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Apiales Nakai
Family
Pittosporaceae R.Br.
Genus
Pittosporum Banks & Sol. ex Gaertn.
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Pittosporum rigidum Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. II. (Fl. Nov.-Zel.) Part I, 22, t. 10 (1852)
Synonymy:
  • = Pittosporum rigidum var. majus Allan, Fl. New Zealand 1, 311 (1961)
 Description

Densely branched shrub up to c. 3 m. tall, us. less; branchlets stout, not or hardly divaricate, ± densely clad when young in ferruginous to pale hairs. Lvs of juveniles entire to irregularly lobed or rarely pinnatifid. Lvs of adults (often mixed with lvs of semi-juvenile form) alt. or some in alt. fascicles on short arrested branchlets, 8–10 × 5–8 mm., on slender petioles c. 2 mm. long, coriac., elliptic-obovate to broadly elliptic, entire to obscurely sinuate-dentate. Fls axillary, solitary; sepals ovate, obtuse to acute, ciliate; petals very dark red, linear-oblong, subacute. Capsules 5–8 × 5–7 mm., ovoid to subglobose, subcordate at base, downy when young, finely to rather coarsely granulate, style base c. 2 mm. long; seeds 6–12 or reduced to c. 4 in stunted plants.

[From: Allan (1961) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 1.]

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Phenology

Fruiting: Oct.–Feb.

 Bibliography
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Barkla J.W.; Courtney, S.P.; Champion, P.D.; Perrie, L.R.; Beadel, S.N.; Ford, K.A.; Breitwieser, I.; Schönberger, I.; Hindmarsh-Walls, R.; Heenan, P.B.; Ladley, K. 2018: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017. New Zealand Threat Classification Series. No. 22. [Not Threatened]
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Champion, P.D.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Norton, D.A.; Hitchmough, R.A. 2013: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012. New Zealand Threat Classification Series 3. Department of Conservation, Wellington. [Not Threatened]
Hooker, J.D. 1852–1853 ("1853"): The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror in the Years 1839–1843, under the command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross. II. Flora Novae-Zelandiae. Part I. Flowering plants. Lovell Reeve, London.