Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Apiales Nakai
Family
Araliaceae
Genus
Meryta J.R.Forst. & G.Forst.
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Meryta sinclairii (Hook.f.) Seem. (1862)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Botryodendrum sinclairii Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. II. (Fl. Nov.-Zel.) Part I, 97 (1853)
Vernacular Name(s):
Puka; Pukanui
 Description

Tree up to c. 8 m. tall, with trunk up to c. 5 dm. diam.; branches brittle. Lvs crowded at apices of branchlets, simple, on petioles up to c. 35 cm. long; lamina about oblong, semicordate at base, coriac., glossy, up to c. 50 × 20 cm.; margins very shallowly broadly lobulate, slightly undulate. Panicles terminal, erect, up to 5 dm. long, about oblong in outline, branches jointed. ♂ in bracted clusters; calyx obsolete, petals 4, greenish; stamens 4. ♀ bracted, crowded; calyx obsolete, petals 4–5, greenish; staminodes present, style-branches 4–5. Fr. 1 cm. or more long, succulent, black, 4–5-loculed; seeds solitary in each locule.

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

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Phenology

Flowering: Sep.–May

 Bibliography
de Lange, P.J.; Norton, D.A.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Hitchmough, R.; Townsend, A.J. 2009: Threatened and uncommon plants of New Zealand (2008 revision). New Zealand Journal of Botany 47: 61–96. [Naturally uncommon]
de Lange, P.J.; Norton, D.A.; Heenan, P.B.; Courtney, S.P.; Molloy, B.P.J.; Ogle, C.C.; Rance, B.D. 2004: Threatened and uncommon plants of New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 42(1): 45–76.
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Barkla J.W.; Courtney, S.P.; Champion, P.D.; Perrie, L.R.; Beadel, S.N.; Ford, K.A.; Breitwieser, I.; Schönberger, I.; Hindmarsh-Walls, R.; Heenan, P.B.; Ladley, K. 2018: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017. New Zealand Threat Classification Series. No. 22. [Naturally Uncommon]
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Champion, P.D.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Norton, D.A.; Hitchmough, R.A. 2013: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012. New Zealand Threat Classification Series 3. Department of Conservation, Wellington. [Naturally Uncommon]
Hooker, J.D. 1852–1853 ("1853"): 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 I. Flowering plants. Lovell Reeve, London.