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  4. Coprosma colensoi

Coprosma colensoi

Herepai Ridge, Tararua Range.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 05/06/2010, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Blue Range Track, Wairarapa.<br>Photographer: Patrick Enright, Date taken: 08/11/2014, Licence: All rights reserved. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Te moehau, February.<br>Photographer: John Smith-Dodsworth, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
At Te moehau, February.<br>Photographer: John Smith-Dodsworth, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Tararua Forest Park.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 19/06/2005, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Tararua Forest Park.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 19/06/2005, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Pistillate flowers. Southern Tararua Range.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 20/11/2011, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Pistillate flowers. Southern Tararua Range.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 20/11/2011, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Pistillate flowers. Southern Tararua Range.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 20/11/2011, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Blue Range Track, Wairarapa.<br>Photographer: Patrick Enright, Date taken: 08/11/2014, Licence: All rights reserved. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Herepai Ridge, Tararua Range.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 05/06/2010, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
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Biostatus

Native – Endemic taxon

Category

Vascular

Structural class

Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons

Simplified description

Bushy shrub with small pairs of leaves inhabiting montane forests. Plants with one of two forms of leaves – either very narrow or oval. Leaves 9-15mm long, abruptly tapering to stem if oval shaped, with 1-2 pits on underside. Fruit crimson.

Detailed description

Slender to rather stout spreading leafy shrub up to 2 (-3) m tall. Branches with dark brown to red-brown bark; branchlets pubescent to glabrous. Leaves on pubescent petioles 2-3 mm long. Stipules triangular, subacute to obtuse, with scattered patches of short hairs, ciliolate usually with prominent dark denticle). Lamina fresh yellowish-green to dark green, glabrous, coriaceous, oblong to broad-oblong to obovate to elliptic (several forms usually on one plant), (7- ) 9-15 (-20) x (3-) 5-8 mm, obtuse to truncate or retuse, narrowed abruptly to petiole. Midrib and many secondary veins evident. Flowers solitary on decurved peduncles. Male flower without calyx; corolla subcampanulate, lobes ovate, acute, more or less equal to tube. Female flower with small, obtuse teeth; corolla tubular, lobes acute, longer than tube. Drupe crimson, broad-oblong, 6-7 mm. long.

Similar taxa

Coprosma foetidissima may easily be confused when stunted forms are present, though generally much larger-leaved. Unlike C. colensoi, C. foetidissima gives off a strong smell of rotten eggs when crushed; the leaves are thinner as well as usually being more than 20 mm long; the flowers face upwards, and the fruit is bright orange without red flecks. The fruit of C. colensoi tastes pleasant, but that of C. foetidissima tastes dreadful!

Coprosma rigida has generally smaller leaves than C. colensoi, with a distinctive flat or indented hair-fringed leaf tip; the branching is much more rigid and wide-angled, and the fruit is whitish or pale orange, and usually distinctly constricted between the two pyrenes.

Distribution

North, South and Stewart Islands. Mount Moehau southwards.

Habitat

Lowland to lower subalpine forest, shrubland.

Current conservation status

The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2022-2023 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS) – more information about this can be found on the NZTCS website. This report includes replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Previous assessments can be found here.

  • Conservation status of vascular plants in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2023. 2024. Peter J. de Lange, Jane Gosden, Shannel P. Courtney, Alexander J. Fergus, John W. Barkla, Sarah M. Beadel, Paul D. Champion, Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Troy Makan and Pascale Michel Department of Conservation. Source: NZTCS and licensed by DOC for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.

2023 | Not Threatened

Jump to previous conservation statuses

Detailed taxonomy

Family

Rubiaceae

Authority

Coprosma colensoi Hook.f.

Synonyms

Coprosma banksii Hook.f., Coprosma pseudocolensoi (Cockayne) in Allan 1934.

Taxonomic notes

Historically the narrow-leaved forms were misleadingly described as a separate species called Coprosma banksii.

In Allan (1961) Oliver notes that “C. Colensoi hybridizes freely with C. foetidissima wherever it meets this species. So diverse are the hybrid swarms that it is difficult to determine the limits of the species or the probable parentage of the hybrids.

Endemic taxon

Yes

Endemic genus

No

Endemic family

No

Ecology

Flowering

October-November

Fruiting

February-June

Life cycle and dispersal

Fleshy drupes are dispersed by frugivory (Thorsen et al., 2009).

Other information

Etymology

coprosma: From the Greek kopros ‘dung’ and osme ‘smell’, referring to the foul smell of the species, literally ‘dung smell’

colensoi: Named after William Colenso (7 November 1811 - 10 February 1899) who was a Cornish Christian missionary to New Zealand, and also a printer, botanist, explorer and politician.

Manaaki Whenua Online Interactive Key

Key to Coprosma species of New Zealand

NVS code

The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.

COPCOL

Chromosome number

2n = 88

Previous conservation statuses

The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2022-2023 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS) – more information about this can be found on the NZTCS website. This report includes replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Previous assessments can be found here.

  • Conservation status of vascular plants in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2023. 2024. Peter J. de Lange, Jane Gosden, Shannel P. Courtney, Alexander J. Fergus, John W. Barkla, Sarah M. Beadel, Paul D. Champion, Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Troy Makan and Pascale Michel Department of Conservation. Source: NZTCS and licensed by DOC for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.

2017 | Not Threatened

2012 | Not Threatened

2009 | Not Threatened

2004 | Not Threatened

Jump to current conservation status

Regional conservation statuses

The regional threat classification system leverages off the national assessments in the NZTCS, providing information relevant for the regional context. Otago conservation status information is sourced from the “Regional conservation status of indigenous vascular plants in Otago” Jarvie S et al. (2024) report.

Otago: 2024 | Regionally Not Threatened

Referencing and citations

References and further reading

Allan, H. H. 1961. Flora of New Zealand. Vol. 1. Wellington: Government Printer. pg. 574.

Thorsen, M. J.; Dickinson, K. J. M.; Seddon, P. J. 2009. Seed dispersal systems in the New Zealand flora. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 11: 285-309.

Wilson, H. D., & Galloway, T. 1993. Small-leaved shrubs of New Zealand. Manuka Press. pg. 100-101.

Attribution

Description adapted by M. Ward from Allan (1961) and Wilson & Galloway (1993).

Some of this factsheet information is derived from Flora of New Zealand Online and is used under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand licence.

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