Flowers : gynodioecious. perfect flowers, solitary, sparse, pedicels slender, drooping, 4.5 to 12.5 mm long, ovary cylindrical, 3 to 7 mm long, 1 to 2.4 mm thick, green, floral tube 9 to 16 mm long, 2.2 to 4 mm wide and bulbous at the base, lined by a smooth nectariferous band inside, sharply constricted above to 1.3 to 2 mm wide, then widening abruptly to 5.5 to 7.5 mm wide at the rim, four-angled in bud, sepals lanceolate, 7 to 12 mm long, 3 to 4.4 mm wide at the base, spreading to occasionally reflexed. tube and sepals lustrous green at anthesis, with dull purple streaks in upper parts between the ridges of the tube, both changing more-or-less abruptly to red-crimson throughout before dehiscing, petals dark purple, elliptic, 1.5 to 4 mm long, 0.6 to 1 mm wide in the middle, acute or obtuse at apex, filaments 5.2 to 11 mm and 4.2-8 mm long, purple, pale cream on connective, anthers 1.6 to 2.5 mm long, 1 to 1.7 mm wide, purple, style 20 to 36 mm long, pale cream to purple, stigma capitate, 1 to 1.9 mm long, 0.8 to 1.1 mm wide, yellow-green. pistillate flowers, similar to perfect ones except, pedicels 4 to 16 mm long, floral tube 5.8 to 10.8 mm long, 1.1 to 2.5 mm in diameter at the constriction, 3.5 to 5.3 mm wide at rim, sepals 5.7 to 9 mm long, 2.6 to 3.4 mm wide at base, filaments 2.5 to 5.2 and 1.5 to 4.4 mm long, anthers aborted, 0.7 to 1.1 mm long, 0.5 to 0.7 mm thick, style 16 to 27 mm long, stigma 1 to 2.2 mm thick.
Flower size :
Flower display :
Flower bud :
Fruit : subcylindric, 5-9mm long x 4-5.5mm wide, dark purple when ripe
Seed : oblong-triangular, 0.8-1.1mm long x 0.4-0.6mm wide
Habit : slender and densely branched, usually decumbent shrub, or liana two to eight meters tall with strongly flexuous stems to 5 cm in diameter and up to ten meters long, bark brown, flaking off in strips
Hardiness:
Height : 1-2 m
Light/Climate :
Optimal light conditions :
Remarks : flowering season is from August to March
Named :
Lookalikes :
Year (of first description) : 1927
Botanist : Cockayne & Allan
Authors : Cockayne & Allan 1927
Original publication : Trans. & Proc. New Zealand Inst. 57: 53 1927
Habitat : found infrequently in lowland forests especially at margins and near clearings on the North Island as far north as 36°S latitude (from historical data), but now known no farther north than 37°15’S latitude near Paeroa, and throughout the South Island at scattered localities as far south as Bluff (46°36’S),
Elevation : 0-550
Native country : New Zealand
Synonyms :
Gametic chromosome number n = 11
FOLIAGE
Leaves : alternate, firm-membranous, petiole slender-filiform, semi-translucent, 10 to 40 mm long, subequal to the blade length, strigulose above, the basal 1 to 1.5 mm swollen and crassate, purple when fresh, tan when dry, generally persistent on the stem after the leaf dehisces, stipules narrowly triangular, 0.8 to 1.3 mm long, 0.3 to 0.6 mm wide, semisucculent and purple when young, caducous
Foliage color upper side : pale green, glabrous to strigulose along the margins and veins
