Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Shrubs 0.8–1.5(–2) m tall.

Stems: Stems unbranched or few–branched near base, pubescent with multicellular hairs or glabrate.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Opposite, closely spaced, borne on upper 3–6 nodes. Those leaves of a pair subequal, symmetrical, elliptic to elliptic–ovate, 26–46 cm long, 6.5–16 cm wide. Apex rounded. Base cuneate. Upper surfaces glabrate except the midrib sparsely puberulent; lower surfaces glabrate except veins sparsely brown pilose, young leaves more densely pilose all over; blades coriaceous. Margins coarsely serrate, subentire toward base, occasionally only serrulate. Veins raised on lower surface. Petioles 3.5–11 cm long, usually broadly winged. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers 5–7 in dense subcapitate clusters of often compound cymes arising in the leaf axils, appressed brown pilose throughout, sometimes sparsely so, peduncles 2–3 mm long, pedicels 4–14 mm long, bracts elliptic, variable in size, 8–20 mm long, partly connate or distinct, sometimes perhaps 1 of a pair reduced or aborted and a single large bract associated with a cyme, all bracts usually deciduous after anthesis. Flowers bisexual (perfect). Calyx 2–5(6)-lobed, zygomorphic, fusiform in bud, tipped by a beak 3–7 mm long, in anthesis pale green(?), 14–28 mm long, deciduous after anthesis, tube 10–18 mm long, appressed brown pilose, glabrous within, upper 3 lobes 6–13 mm long, lower 2 lobes 6–10 mm long, all lobes usually separating by anthesis, deciduous or persistent in fruit. Corolla usually bilabiate, white, tube narrowly funnelform, curved near middle, 14–18 mm long, ca. 5–7 mm in diameter medially, glabrous, upper lip 2-lobed, lower lip 3-lobed, the lobes imbricate in bud, upper lobes broadly elliptic, 6–7 mm long, 5–7 mm wide, lower lobes broadly elliptic to elliptic, 7–12 mm long, 5–9 mm wide. Stamens 5, inserted about halfway up corolla tube, the 2 upper Stamens fertile, others staminodial, +/– with abortive anthers; fertile anthers coherent positioned in throat of corolla tube, dithecal, opening by longitudinal slits or occasionally by apical pores. Ovary superior, glabrous, oblong–ovoid, 2-carpellate, 1-celled, placentation parietal, placentas 2, ± intruded, rarely joined in center and dividing ovary into 2 cells; ovules numerous, anatropous, apex rounded or with a stylar beak; style ca. 5–9 mm long, glabrous; stigma capitate, 2-lobed, lobes usually elliptic.

Fruit: Fruit a fleshy or firm berry; white; ellipsoid; 1.6–2.4 cm long; glabrous; often tipped by the persistent stylar beak. Seeds numerous; ellipsoid; minute; 0.35–0.5 mm long; the surface reticulate.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Occurring by waterfalls; on saturated basalt walls of stream ravines and cliffs; usually in low Metrosideros–dominated wet forest and shrubland; usually occurs with ferns; bryophytes; and herbaceous species.

Elevation Range: 730–1,350 m.