Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Shrub.

Stems: Stem unbranched, 1.5–1.9 m tall, glabrous.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate. Blades narrowly elliptic, 16.5–27.5 cm long, 2.7–5.7 cm wide. Apex acuminate. Base cuneate. Upper surfaces green, glabrous; lower surfaces greenish white, glabrous or the midrib minutely and sparsely pubescent. Margins minutely serrulate. Petioles terete (cylindrical), 3.5–9 cm long, 2 mm diam., glabrous. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in inflorescence 4–8–flowered, glabrous; peduncle deflexed, 13.5–16 cm long, 2–4 mm diam.; rachis 3–6.5 cm long. Flowers bisexual (perfect); pedicels sharply recurved, 18–27 mm long, reduced in length toward apex of rachis. Hypanthium obconic or obovoid, 6–13 mm long, 6–11 mm diam., densely short–pubescent. Calyx lobes triangular or deltoid, 1.5–3 mm long, 1.5–3.5 mm wide, the apex acute. Corolla bilabiate, white shading to purple on the lobes, 50–52 mm long, densely short–pubescent; tube curved, 30–39 mm long, 5.5–9 mm diam, cleft dorsally for 1⁄2 its length; dorsal lobes linear, 13–19 mm long, 1.5–3 mm wide, acute at apex; ventral lobes linear, 10–15 mm long, 1.5–3 mm wide, acute at apex. Stamens 5, alternate with corolla lobes, connate; staminal column exserted; filaments 3.7–4.9 cm long, purple, glabrous; anther tube dark purple, 9–11 mm long, 2.5–4 mm diam., the lower 2 anthers with tufts of white hairs at apex. Ovary inferior, 2-celled; ovule placentation axile; stigma 2-lobed, wet or dry, appressed and nonreceptive as the style grows through the anther tube, pushing out the pollen, after which the stigmas spread apart and become receptive.

Fruit: Berries unknown. Seeds unknown.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Wet <i>Metrosideros</i> forests.

Elevation Range: 650–765 m.