Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Myrtales Juss. ex Bercht. & J.Presl
Family
Myrtaceae
Genus
Metrosideros Banks ex Gaertn.
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Metrosideros colensoi Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. II. (Fl. Nov.-Zel.) Part I, 68 (1852)
Synonymy:
  • = Metrosideros pendens Colenso, Trans. & Proc. New Zealand Inst. 12: 360 (1879 [1880])
  • ≡ Metrosideros colensoi var. pendens (Colenso) Kirk, Stud. Fl. New Zealand 162 (1899)
 Description

Slender liane, up to 6 m. or more tall; branchlets subterete, setose to pubescent. Lvs subsessile; lamina (8)–15–20 × (5)–7–10–(20) mm., submembr., about ovate-lanceolate, acute to acuminate, ± densely pubescent when young. Infl. of terminal and lateral small few-fld cymes; pedicels us. setose, ± 3 mm. long; receptacle c. 5 mm. long, ± funnelform, pubescent, far exceeding ovary. Sepals narrow-triangular, acute; petals pink to white, orbicular, hardly > sepals; filaments ± 10 cm. long. Ovary adnate to receptacle; capsule subglobose, 3-ribbed, up to c. 4 mm. diam., often less, exceeded by receptacle, loculicidally 3-valved.

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

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Phenology

Flowering: Nov.–Jan.; Fruiting: Dec.–Feb.

 Bibliography
Colenso, W. 1880: A description of a few new plants from our New Zealand forests, with dried specimens of the same. Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 12: 359–367.
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. [Nationally Vulnerable]
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. [Not Threatened]
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.
Kirk,T. 1899: The Students' Flora of New Zealand and the Outlying Islands. Government Printer, Wellington, N.Z.