The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network

Species

Dactylanthus taylorii

Common Name(s)

Wood rose, pua o te reinga, flower of Hades

Threat Status

Nationally Vulnerable

Status 2004

Serious Decline

Authority

Dactylanthus taylorii Hook.f.

Qualifiers

CD, PD, RF, Sp

Family

Balanophoraceae

Flora Category

Vascular - Native

Synonyms

None known.

Distribution

Distributed from Northland down to the Wairarapa. Historically recorded in the Kahurangi National Park area of northern South Island.

Habitat

Dactylanthus grows parasitically on the roots of about 30 species of native hardwood trees and shrubs such as Griselinia littoralis and Pseudopanax arboreus and Pittosporum tenuifolium. The plant prefers damp but well drained places and is often found at the head of small streams. It has been found at altitudes from near sea level to 1200m.

Features

Dioecious, achlorophyllous, holoparasitic, root-parasite. Rhizomes mostly buried just below soil surface, usually terminal on host root and attached over a broad irregular surface to expanded end of host root; ± hemispherical, globose, up to 600 mm diameter, surface dark brown, externally covered with hard angular or warty papillae and old flower and fruiting bases, internally fleshy and ± starchy. Shoots seasonal, numerous, arising irregularly and mostly from base of rhizomes, unbranched 100–300 × 10–15 mm long, covered with glossy, dark brown, maroon-brown to red-brown, membranous, sessile, imbricating scale leaves; lamina 5–20 × 5–9 mm, broadly deltoid, claw-like, long-tapering from base, subacute to acute, entire, glabrous, becoming larger and paler toward shoot apex. Inflorescence a terminal capitulum of 15–28 spadices, 20–40 mm diameter, surrounded by an involucre of brown, cream, pink, red or yellow scale leaves, these up to 30 × 15 mm; spadix-axis erect, 20–25 mm long, ± grooved, flowers crowded on upper 2/3, occasionally diffusely scattered, sometimes admixed with bracts in lower 1/3. Flowers densely crowded; male perianth segments, 0–4 filamentous; stamen usually 1, rarely 2, subsessile or sessile, filament 0.2–0.45 mm, anther bilobed, white, pollen whitish, abundant; female perianth segments 2, usually unequal, adnate to ovary, ovary 2-loculed, style > ovary, filiform, stigma simple. Fruit 1.5–1.8 mm, ovate, asymmetric, angular, dark purple-brown to black brown, terminal end bearing remnant style and perianth. Nut 1.3–1.5 mm, elliptic to elliptic-ovate, asymmetric, glossy dark red-brown or purple-brown, glabrous.

Similar Taxa

None but sometimes confused with galls and root galls found on beech trees, Rhizobium and Frankia nodules and other growths on exposed roots and basal trunks have been collected as wood rose. Dactylanthus can be distinguished from these by the presence of small circular scars on the exposed tuber left by former buds and flowering shoots.

Flowering

January to May

Main Flower Colour

White

Fruiting

January to August

Propagation Technique

Unknown.

Threats

Habitat destruction, collectors of wood roses and browsing animal such as possums. Cattle destroy plants through trampling. Decline in numbers of short-tailed bats may have also caused a decline in this species. Rats and pigs are also major browsing threats alongside possums.

Endemic Taxon

Yes

Endemic Genus

Yes

Endemic Family

No

This page last updated on 27 May 2013