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Coprosma

J.R.Forst. & G.Forst. (1776)

This name is accepted

Kingdom: Viridiplantae Phylum: Magnoliophyta Class/Clade: Eudicot-Asterids Order: Gentianales Family: Rubiaceae Genus: Coprosma

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Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Shrubs, creeping and sometimes rooting at the nodes or erect, sometimes trees, often foetid when bruised.

Stems:

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Opposite or rarely ternate. Margins entire. Petiolate or sessile. Stipules interpetiolar, distinct or partly connate, entire or dentate with teethlike marginal appendages (in Hawai‘i these reddish brown to reddish purple; usually bearing mucilage-producing colleters on inner surface that aid in protection of the growing shoot tip.

Flowers: Flowers axillary, solitary or in cymes. Flowers insect-pollinated, unisexual (and the plants dioecious), rarely polygamous or 1 species bisexual (perfect), often heterostylous. Calyx 4–5(–10)-toothed with open aestivation, usually absent in staminate flowers. Corolla actinomorphic, rarely irregular or zygomorphic and bilabiate, (3)4-5(8-10)-lobed, the lobes valvate, imbricate, or convolute; nectary disk usually present. Stamens 4-5(-10), alternate with the corolla lobes, inserted at base of corolla tube; filaments long-exserted; anthers penduous, dithecal, opening by longitudinal slits. Ovary inferior, occasionally partly so, or very rarely superior, 2(-4)-celled; ovule 1 per cell, basal, anatropous; style as many as carpels, 2(-4)lobed, divided nearly to base, terminal, slender; stigmas lobed or capitate, long-exserted, papillose-hirsute, dry or occasionally wet.

Fruit: Fruit drupaceous; juicy; ovoid to globose; with 2(-4); 1-seeded; planoconvex pyrenes. Seeds with well-developed oily endosperm; or endosperm occasionally scanty or absent.

Ploidy:

Habitat:

Elevation Range:

Historical Distribution

Images

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Uses and Culture

USES

  • The berries of the pilo are used as a laxative (Degener 1930:282).

  • Wood variable from hard to soft between species (Little and Skolmen 1989:298).

PROPAGATION/CULTIVATION

  • Easy [C. rhynchocarpa]. Remove fruit pulp from seeds. Seeds germinate by 4 months. Variable growth rates. Fairly hardy after outplanting. Good under larger, mature trees, such as koa and ‘ōhi‘a lehua. Few pests. (Culliney and Koebele 1999:133–134).

Natural History

Island Status

Dispersal Agents


Pollinators

Specimens

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Bibliography

Name Published In: Char. Gen. Pl.: 137 (1776)

Occurrences

SNo. Scientific Name Locality Habitat Basis of Record Recorded By Record Number Island Source Date
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