Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Ericales Bercht. & J.Presl
Family
Primulaceae
Genus
Myrsine L.
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Myrsine nummularia (Hook.f.) Hook.f., Handb. New Zealand Fl. 184 (1864)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Suttonia nummularia Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. II. (Fl. Nov.-Zel.) Part I, 173, t.43 (1853)
  • ≡ Rapanea nummularia (Hook.f.) W.R.B.Oliver, Rec. Auckland Inst. Mus. 4: 112 (1951)
Vernacular Name(s):
Creeping mapou; Creeping matipo
 Description

Prostrate or rambling shrub with slender branches up to c. 5 dm. long; branchlets with reddish brown bark. Lvs on petioles ± 1 mm. long. Lamina coriac., 4–10 × 4–10 mm., obovate-oblong to obovate to suborbicular, minutely apiculate or sts retuse; margins slightly recurved, at first ciliolate. Infl. of solitary fls or of few-fld fascicles. Fls minute; calyx-lobes 4, ovate; petals 4, free, obovate, ciliolate; ovary conical, stigma irregularly lobed. Fr. globose, 5–6·5 mm. diam., bluish purple.

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

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Phenology

Fruiting: Oct.–Feb.

 Bibliography
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. [Not Threatened]
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.
Hooker, J.D. 1864: Handbook of the New Zealand Flora: a systematic description of the native plants of New Zealand and the Chatham, Kermadec's, Lord Auckland's, Campbell's and Macquarie's Islands. Part I. Reeve, London.
Oliver, W.R.B. 1951: The flora of the Three Kings Islands: additional notes: with note on Suttonia. Records of the Auckland Institute and Museum 4: 111–112.