Forstera sedifolia G.Forst.

Plants with stems creeping and rooting from old leaf axils, 170–450 mm long, green leafy shoots erect. Stems 2.1–3.2 mm in diameter when fresh, 1,5–3.8(–5.3) mm in diameter when dry, dark purple-brown, purplish-red, or green, branching frequently, 1–8 branches per plant. Shoots with leaves 10–14 mm wide. Leaves tightly imbricate, upper half of leaf patent to slightly squarrose; 5.8–7.8 nun long, 2.8–4.3 nun wide at widest point, 2.0–2.8 nun wide at waist near leaf base; panduriform, apex acute to slightly obtuse, sometimes slightly apiculate due to hyaline thickening at apex; leaves slightly V-shaped; mid-green adaxially and abaxially, occasionally with a slight purple tinting abaxially, glossy adaxially, dull abaxially; median stripe indistinct on lower leaf surface when fresh, with age in dried specimens becoming raised and orange-brown, narrowly triangular, at the leaf base almost filling the width of the leaf, 1.4–2.0 mm wide, tapering to 0.4–0.7 mm at leaf apex; stomata forming a zone on lower leaf surface either side of median stripe at midleaf, not extending to the margin; leaf margin entire, a hyaline border 0.13–0.20 mm wide, most noticeable and widest in upper half of leaf and at apex but present on ah margins; a conspicuous raised hydathode on upper leaf surface near the apex just below the hyaline apex, yellow-green.

Flowering stems 1–2(–3) per plant. Peduncle dark crimson to dark red-brown, (24–)41–62(–93) mm long, 0.5–0.6 mm in diameter throughout. Flowers 1–2 per peduncle. Bract 3.8–5.0 mm long, 1.1–1.5 mm wide, narrowly to very narrowly ovate, margins glabrous or ciliate, green mottled red-brown. Pedicel, where present, 1–4 mm long, dark crimson. Bracteoles 3.3–4.7 mm long, 1.1–1.6 mm wide, oblong, green tinted crimson, margins glabrous or ciliate, hairs 50–70 pm long. Ovary green speckled red-brown, 2.1–3.5 mm long. Sepals 6–7 per flower, 3.7–5.6(–6.3) mm long, 1.5–2.0(–2.7) mm wide, marginal hairs 180–300 pm long. Corolla white, usually with crimson speckles in the throat, speckles sometime absent, 10.1–13.1 mm long; lobes equal, 6 per flower, 9.3–10.8 mm long, 4.9–6.1 mm wide, apices obtuse, margins entire but mammillose due to inflated cells, sinuses yellow; 2 vertical raised ridges present each side of each sinus, yellow to orange-yellow. Nectaries 1.3–1.4 mm long, 0.4 mm in diameter at the base, cylindrical with apex truncate, yellow with a green apex. Gynostemium 3.3–4.0 mm long, stigmas 2, colourless, papillose at anthesis, in female phase 1.1–1.8 mm long each, centrally grooved, strongly recurved, sometimes deeply bilobed. Anthers 1.2–1.5 mm long, walls dark purple with a hyaline mouth. Capsule c. 5 mm long. Seeds 0.9–1.2(-l.4) mm long.

[Reproduced from Glenny (2010, New Zealand J. Bot. 47: 285–315) with permission from The Royal Society of New Zealand.]