Myrsine coxii

Detailed description

Shrub or small gynodioecious tree up to 12 m tall, with extensively creeping underground network of stems, these emitting offset plants up to 10 m away from parent plant; trunk 0.1-0.2 m dbh, usually multi-trunked and branching from base, bark red-brown to dark brown. usually clean of lichens and bryophyte growth (except in restiad bogs). Branches numerous, fastigiate (i.e. like a pitch fork), close set, in open conditions densely set and crowded, in swamp forest markedly less so; branchlets, slender, numerous densely packed and leafy along entire length in open situations, less so in shaded sites, lenticellate, yellow-green to dark green or red-green, young growth finely clad in short (0.1-0.3 mm) stiff hairs becoming glabrous with age. Leaves alternate, usually very densely clustered and crowded along branchlets and short lateral branchlets, coriaceous, finely pubescent when young becoming glabrous with age, adaxially dark green (shaded sites or in forest) or yellow-green (very rarely with dark red blemishes), abaxially slightly paler, oil gland numerous, minute, colourless of pink-tinged; midrib indistinct from lamina, concolorous with lamina, scarcely raised above, slightly so below, finely pubescent, indumentum shedding with age; petioles wanting, 1-4(-10) mm long. Lamina 8-10-20(-25) × 5-10-14 mm, inrolled, obovate, oval, occasionally oblong, apex retuse, emarginate or obtuse, cuneately narrowed at apex, margins entire, thickened, finely ciliolate when young. Inflorescence in (1-)2-3(-6)-flowered fascicles. Flowers cream, pale yellow or wine-red, occasionally darkly spotted purple-black; pedicels 0.8-1.2 mm long, elongating to 10 mm in fruit. Pistillate flowers: often solitary or in pairs, calyx 0.8-1.2 mm, tube 0.2-0.45 mm, lobes 4, 0.6-0.8 × 0.3-0.4 mm, broadly ovate, erecto-patent, subacute, margins ciliolate; corolla 2.0-2.5 mm, tube wanting, lobes 4, erecto-patent, 1.2-1.6 × 0.6-1.0 mm, broadly elliptic, copiously covered in oil glands, these colourless or tinged pink, margins ciliolate, cilia white or pink-tinged. Antherodes absent or malformed, 0.23-0.28 × 0.10-0.18 mm, apiculus recurved or absent; pollen absent. Ovary 2.4-3.2 × 1.8-2.6 mm, ellipsoid, green, often pink-tinged, copiously spotted in oil glands. Stigma sessile, 2.0-2.1 mm diameter, 4-armed, white, often pink-tinged. Staminate flowers: calyx 0.8-1.4 mm, tube 0.2-0.4 mm, lobes 4, erecto-patent, 0.6-0.8 × 0.4-0.6 mm, ovate, margins minutely ciliolate, cilia pinkish; corolla 2.2-2.9 mm, tube 0.2-0.6 mm,lobes 4, spreading (with apices strong decurved at anthesis), 2.4-3.2 × 1.2-2.0 mm, elliptic, margins ciliolate, pinkish, apex obtuse. Stamens 4(-5), filaments 0.4-0.6 × 0.11-0.14 mm, pinkish, stamens red or pink, apiculus recurved. Ovary absent or malformed. Bisexual flowers: calyx 0.8-1.4 mm, tube 0.2-0.4 mm, lobes 4, erecto-patent, 0.6-0.8 × 0.4-0.6 mm, ovate, margins minutely ciliolate, pinkish; corolla 2.2-2.9 mm, tube 0.2-0.6 mm,lobes 4, spreading (with apices strongly decurved at anthesis), 2.3-2.9 x 1.2-1.31 mm, elliptic, margins fimbriate,cilia pinkish, apex rounded or obtuse. Stamens (4-)5, filaments 2.4-3.2 × 1.2-2.0 mm, pinkish, stamens red, apiculus recurved. Ovary 2.4-3.2 × 1.8-2.6 mm, ellipsoid, green, often pink-tinged, copiously spotted in oil glands. Stigma sessile, 2.0-2.1 mm diameter, 4-armed, white, often pink-tinged. Drupe 1-seeded, 6-8 mm diameter, dark violet to purple-black, globose, purplish. Endocarp 3.2-4.0 × 3.2-3.8 mm, globose (rarely broadly elliptic), light greenish yellow or yellow, surface ± smooth, without obvious veins.