Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Chloranthales R.Br.
Family
Chloranthaceae R.Br. ex Sims
Genus
Ascarina J.R.Forst. & G.Forst.
 Subordinate Taxa
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Ascarina lucida Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. II (Fl. Nov.-Zel.) Part II, 228 (1853)
Vernacular Name(s):
Hutu
 Description

Glab. shrub or tree up to 6 m. or more tall; trunk up to 3 dm. diam. Branchlets slender, becoming striate, dark purple. Petioles ± 1 cm. long; lamina coriac., 2–7 × 1·5–3·5 cm., elliptic to oval to obovate, obtuse to acute to subacuminate (all forms may occur on same plant) cuneately narrowed to base; margins coarsely serrate; surface glossy dark green above, paler below. Spikes oppositely and openly branched, slender; branches ± 3 cm. long. Fls alt., subtended by deltoid to broad-ovate acute bract and a lateral smaller pair. Anther cylindric, ± 2.5 mm. long; ♀ solitary or 2 to 3 together; ovary sessile; stigma broad, sessile; fr. broadly ovoid, ± 2.5 mm. long.

[From: Allan (1961) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 1.]

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
Number of subspecific taxa in New Zealand within Ascarina lucida Hook.f.
CategoryNumber
Indigenous (Endemic)2
Total2
 Phenology

Flowering: Sep.–Nov.; Fruiting: Oct.–Jan.

 Bibliography
Hooker, J.D. 1854–1855: The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror, in the years 1839–1843, under the command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross. II. Flora Novae-Zelandiae. Part II. Flowerless plants. Lovell Reeve, London.