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NZ Myrtaceae Key - Online edition
Metrosideros colensoi Hook.f.
New Zealand endemic.
Not commonly cultivated, but may be occasionally available at specialist nurseries.
Common in limestone areas of New Zealand, from Northland (Waima Forest) south to Nelson and Marlborough, extending to Westland in the west, and south-eastern Marlborough and north-eastern Canterbury in the east. In the North Island extremely uncommon north of the Waikato and Coromandel Peninsula; in the southern part of its range mostly confined to coastal forest.
- Woody long-climbing vine.
- Adult branches weeping (pendulous).
- Juvenile leaves ranked on either side of stem and lie in one plane, older leaves spread around the stem.
- Juvenile leaves pale yellow-green, adult leaves glossy to dark green.
- Juvenile leaves finely hairy, adult leaves hairless.
- Leaves attached at an acute angle to the stem.
- Flowers white or rarely pink.
- Calyx tube narrower than the fruit (± 2 mm wide).
Leafy shoots at first clinging to tree trunks via aerial roots, then unattached, slender to very slender, long-climbing, woody vines with weeping branches.
Bark grey to pale grey, separating into thick, squarish flakes. Branchlets red-brown, 4-angled, hairy, becoming hairless with age. Adult branches weeping (pendulous).
Leaves opposite, ranked on either side of stem and lie in one plane, although adult leaves tend to spread around the stem, ovate-lanceolate, 15–20 mm long, 7–10 mm wide, glossy to dark green above, paler below (emergent growth and juvenile leaves uniformly pale yellow-green), leaf surface flat, densely hairy when young, not puckered, midrib raised, oil glands particularly visible on lower surfaces; margins entire, hairy when young; tips pointed; stalks absent or very short.
Flowers in small clusters crowded terminally on branches, cluster-branchlets often 3-flowered, or flowers solitary on cluster axis. Flowers ± 15 mm in diam., mature flower stalks ± 3 mm long, petals 5, rounded, ± 1.5–2.0 mm long, 1.5–2.0 mm wide, white to pink; sepals 5, tips free, persistent, stalks and base of flowers and outer surface of sepals hairy, calyx tube ± 5 mm long; stamens mostly white, filaments 8–12 mm long. Main flowering period: late spring to summer.
Sterile material is similar to M. diffusa, but M. colensoi differs in that the leaves are at an acute angle to the branch, juvenile leaves are pale yellow-green, distinctly hairy on the upper surface and the midvein and lateral veins are not prominently raised as opposed to leaves that are at right-angles to the branch, young upper leaf surfaces are hairless to very sparsely hairy, and the midveins and lateral veins are prominently raised. Flower clusters in M. diffusa occur laterally along branches, whereas they occur terminally in M. colensoi.