Class
Family
Genus
Classification
Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Parsonsia praeruptis Heads & de Lange, New Zealand J. Bot. 37: 1 (1999)
Description
Low subshrub with woody stock emitting erect, stiff, unbranched leafy stems 15–30(–140) cm long, 3 mm diameter, these sometimes trailing close to the ground and rooting at nodes, not climbing or twining, smooth, pale grey-brown, finely pubescent with sparse, white, curved hairs, exudate clear and watery. Internodes 1–5 cm long. Leaves yellowish green, subcoriaceous, one pair of prophylls often presen t basally on shoots, these ± orbicular, 5 × 5 mm, subsequent leaves larger, variably shaped, oblong or ovate-triangular, but without ontogenetic heterophylly, petiole 1–2 mm long, pubescent, leaf-buttress geniculate below abscission zone, lamina (5–10–)2 0 (–29) × (5–)10(–15) mm, leaf base truncatesubcordate, apex obtuse-subacute, usually truncate, mucronate, margin entire, revolute, leaf venation not visible apart from midrib, young leaves pubescent abaxially on midrib with fewer hairs around margin and at apiculus and few scattered hairs adaxially, all hairs soon caducous. Inflorescences axillary and sometimes terminal panicles, up to 25 flowers per inflorescence, peduncle 9 mm long, pubescent, pedicel 2–3(–5) mm long, glabrous distally. Bracts 1 mm long. Flowers 5-merous, 4 mm long. Caly × lobes 1 .5–2 mm long, ovate, glabrous apart from a few marginal cilia, 2–3 adaxial colleter s opposite each lobe. Corolla white, lobes 2 – 2.2 mm long, spreading, tube 2 mm long, rose-coloured, glabrous without, ring of short retrorse hairs within corolla throat. Filaments 1 mm long, adnate to base of tube, not twisted, pubescent adaxially, anthers 2 mm long, wholly exserted beyond throat, tails narrow, obtuse. Hypogynous nectary scales triangular-oblong, free. Follicle s 50–110 × of 3–4 mm. Seeds 9 × 1 .5 mm, coma 12 mm long. FL Oct–Apr, FT Sep–Apr.
[Reproduced from Heads & de Lange (1999, New Zealand J. Bot. 37: 1–6) with permission from The Royal Society of New Zealand.]
Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
Bibliography
de Lange, P.J.; Norton, D.A.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Hitchmough, R.; Townsend, A.J. 2009: Threatened and uncommon plants of New Zealand (2008 revision). New Zealand Journal of Botany 47: 61–96. [Naturally uncommon]
de Lange, P.J.; Norton, D.A.; Heenan, P.B.; Courtney, S.P.; Molloy, B.P.J.; Ogle, C.C.; Rance, B.D. 2004: Threatened and uncommon plants of New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 42(1): 45–76.
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. [Nationally Critical]
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. [Nationally Endangered]
Heads, M.J.; de Lange, P. J. 1999: Parsonsia praeruptis (Apocynaceae): a new threatened, ultramafic endemic from North Cape, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 37(1): 1–6.
