New Zealand Plant Conservation Network
  • Member login
  • Join
Facebook
  • Home
  • Flora
    • Flora species
    • Vascular
    • Non Vascular
    • Plant identification
    • Fungi
    • Make your own book
    • Quiz
  • Threats
    • Exotic Plants (Weeds)
    • Pest Animals
    • Other threats
  • Ecosystems
    • Plant communities
    • Ecosystem services
    • Novel ecosystems
  • Publications
    • Plant lists
    • Botanical Society journals
    • Newsletter
    • NZPCN publications
    • Documents
  • Conservation
    • Seedbank
    • Training
    • Restoration
    • Monitoring
    • Habitat protection
    • Funding
    • Botanic gardens
  • NZPCN
    • Members
    • Council members
    • Awards
    • David Given Scholarship
    • Events
    • Shop
    • Favourite Plant
    • Join
    • News
    • Donate
    • Trilepidea newsletter
    • Why join NZPCN?
  • Contact us
  • Help
    • FAQ
    • Query
    • Glossary

Search flora

You are here:
  1. Home
  2. Flora
  3. Flora species
  4. Coprosma elatirioides

Coprosma elatirioides

Grebe valley, Fiordland. January.<br>Photographer: John Smith-Dodsworth, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Grebe valley, Fiordland. January.<br>Photographer: John Smith-Dodsworth, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Male flower.<br>Photographer: Adrienne Markey, Licence: All rights reserved.
Taken at Aparima Valley, Southland.<br>Photographer: Adrienne Markey, Licence: All rights reserved.
Aparima Valley, Southland.<br>Photographer: Adrienne Markey, Licence: All rights reserved.
Swampy Summit, Dunedin.<br>Photographer: Adrienne Markey, Licence: All rights reserved.
Fruit from Swampy Summit, Otago.<br>Photographer: Adrienne Markey, Licence: All rights reserved.
Male flower.<br>Photographer: Adrienne Markey, Licence: All rights reserved.
Stipule.<br>Photographer: Adrienne Markey, Licence: All rights reserved.
Swampy Summit, Dunedin.<br>Photographer: Adrienne Markey, Licence: All rights reserved.
Swampy Summit, Dunedin.<br>Photographer: Adrienne Markey, Licence: All rights reserved.
Eglinton Valley, Fiordland.<br>Photographer: John Barkla, 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>
Eglinton Valley, Fiordland.<br>Photographer: John Barkla, 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>
Cascade.<br>Photographer: Mike Thorsen, Date taken: 13/12/2013, 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>
Cascade.<br>Photographer: Mike Thorsen, Date taken: 13/12/2013, 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>
Download PDF Comment on factsheet

NZPCN members can select up to 20 plant species and automatically create a full colour, fully illustrated A4 book describing them (in PDF format).

  • Find out more...
  • Join NZPCN...
Find in plant lists
iNaturalist NZ View observations Te Papa View specimens Donate Support NZPCN

Synonyms

None (first described in 2003)

Family

Rubiaceae

Authority

Coprosma elatirioides de lange et A.Markey

Flora category

Vascular – Native

Endemic taxon

Yes

Endemic genus

No

Endemic family

No

Structural class

Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons

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.

COPELA

Chromosome number

2n = 44

Current conservation status

  • Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017

The threat classification status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2017 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS) – more information about this can be found on the NZTCS website This report includes a statistical summary and brief notes on changes since 2012 and replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Authors: By Peter J. de Lange, Jeremy R. Rolfe, John W. Barkla, Shannel P. Courtney, Paul D. Champion, Leon R. Perrie, Sarah M. Beadel, Kerry A. Ford, Ilse Breitwieser, Ines Schönberger, Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Peter B. Heenan and Kate Ladley. Please note, threat classifications are often suggested by authors when publications fall between NZTCS assessment periods – a suggested threat classification status has not been assessed by the NZTCS panel.

Source: NZTCS and licensed by DOC for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.

2017 | Not Threatened

Previous conservation statuses

2012 | Not Threatened

2009 | Not Threatened

2004 | Not Threatened

Brief description

A low wide-angled bushy shrub with small narrow leaves inhabiting open damp areas in the South Island. Twigs long slender and flexible, covered in short fuzz. Leaves curved sideways, very narrow, around 10mm long, with tiny clustered hairs on underside (lens needed), margin red. Fruit white with blue flecks.

Distribution

Endemic. South and Stewart Islands.

Habitat

Lowland to subalpine, favouring open swamps, mires, pakihi, and associated poorly drained soils, often in wetland systems dominated by red tussock (Chionochloa rubra) and/or wire rush (Empodisma minus).

Wetland plant indicator status rating

Information derived from the revised national wetland plant list prepared to assist councils in delineating and monitoring wetlands (Clarkson et al., 2021 Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research Contract Report LC3975 for Hawke’s Bay Regional Council). The national plant list categorises plants by the extent to which they are found in wetlands and not ‘drylands’. The indicator status ratings are OBL (obligate wetland), FACW (facultative wetland), FAC (facultative), FACU (facultative upland), and UPL (obligate upland).

FACW: Facultative Wetland

Usually is a hydrophyte but occasionally found in uplands (non-wetlands).

Features

Semi-erect to prostrate, shortly rhizomatous, evergreen, dioecious, trailing shrub up to 0.5-1 x 2-6(-8) m. Main stems 2 or more, up to 40 mm diam., arising from a dense network of lateral roots, buried stems and short-rhizomes; branches numerous, wiry, slender, lianoid, long-trailing, arising at angles of > 45 deg, frequently rooting at nodes. Mature outer bark rust-brown or maroon-brown; inner bark lime-green to green yellow. Brachyblasts numerous, very leafy; internodes 0.1-0.2 mm, scarcely visible, obscured by leaves and stipules. Leaves opposite, linear-filiform, falcate, coriaceous; petioles scarcely differentiated from lamina; lamina often falcate, 0.2-0.5 mm long, crimson or dark green, (4-)10(-30) x (0.3-)0.6(-1.2) mm, margins involute, apex obtuse, base attenuate. Leaf colour usually wine-red, sometimes light green or dark green with red margins, adaxial surface bearing patent, deciduous eglandular hairs (40x magnification); leaf domatia common, 1-3 per leaf when present; midrib scarcely evident. Stipules 0.3-0.6 mm long, orange-brown or purple, shortly sheathing, sheath < 1/4 length of stipule and apical denticle, narrowly triangular, marginal fringe chartaceous, dark abaxial surface heavily invested in white hairs, 0.1-0.5 mm long; margin of stipules entire; denticles (3-)5(-6), glandular, black, deciduous; with 1-2 at apex of stipule, and (1-)3(-4) on stipule sheath. Plants unisexual; flowers subsessile, axillary, solitary or paired in uppermost leaves of previous growth flush. Pedicel minute. Male flowers mostly paired; calyx vestigial; corolla 5-6 mm long; tube 1.5-2 mm long, funnelform, pale yellow copiously flecked with red or pink; lobes 3-4, broadly elliptic or lanceolate, 4.5-5 x 1.6-1.8 mm, recurved; filaments 4-6 mm long, cream; anthers 3-4, 2.5-3 x 1-1.5 mm, oblong, apex acute or attenuated; pollen creamy yellow. Female flowers mostly solitary; calyx adnate to ovary, pale yellow flecked crimson or pink; lobes 4, 0.75- 1 mm long, obovate to oblanceolate, basal portion pale yellow flecked with red fading to pale yellow in upper portion; corolla tube 2-2.5 mm long, narrowly campanulate, yellow, striped and/or flecked red; lobes 3-4, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate 2.5-3 x 0.6 mm, strongly decurved; ovary ovoid, green, 0.8-1 x 0.6-0.8 mm; stigmas 2, 8- 14 mm long, terete, pale yellow to cream, densely papillose-pubescent. Drupe ellipsoid, 4-6 x 3-4 mm, white stippled with dark blue flecks (rarely entirely dark navy blue); calyx persistent. Pyrenes (1-)2, unequal; the larger (2.5-)3.0(-4.5) x 1.8-2.5 mm, ovoid to ellipsoid, plano-convex, apex obtuse, rarely acute; base obtuse to acute; operculum distinct, obovate-obtriangular.

Similar taxa

Differs from the vegetatively similar C. intertexta by its long-trailing, subscandent, almost lianoid habit; longer branchlets; shortly sheathing conspicuously denticulate stipules; fleshy coriaceous, adaxially pubescent leaves with obtuse apices; and its restriction to wetlands. From other Coprosmas it differs by its long trailing, non-flexuous, wiry branchlets, stipule characters, and its habitat preference.

Flowering

October - November

Flower colours

Red/Pink, Yellow

Fruiting

March - July

Life cycle

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

Propagation technique

Easily grown from fresh fruit and cuttings. An excellent wetland plant.

Etymology

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

Attribution

Description based on Markey and de Lange (2003)

References and further reading

Markey, A.S.; de Lange, P.J. 2003: A new species of Coprosma Sect. Acerosae (Rubiaceae) endemic to the South and Stewart Islands of New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 41: 459-473.

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.

NZPCN Fact Sheet citation

Please cite as: de Lange, P.J. (Year at time of access): Coprosma elatirioides Fact Sheet (content continuously updated). New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/coprosma-elatirioides/ (Date website was queried)

▲ Back to top
  • Home
  • Flora
  • Threats
  • Ecosystems
  • Publications
  • Conservation
  • NZPCN
  • Contact us
  • Help

© 2023 New Zealand Plant Conservation Network • Website by RS

Coastlands Plant Nursery Wildlands

Website sponsor

  • Home
  • Flora
    • Flora species
    • Vascular
      • Ferns
        • King fern
        • True ferns
        • Adder's tongue ferns
        • Fork ferns and whisk ferns
        • Horsetails
      • Conifers
        • Celery pines
        • Kauri
        • Podocarps
          • Podocarpus
          • Dacrydium
          • Prumnopitys
          • Dacrycarpus
          • Halocarpus
          • Lepidothamnus
          • Manoao
        • Cypress
      • Flowering plants
        • Parasites
          • Leafy mistletoes
          • Pygmy mistletoes
            • Korthalsella hosts
            • Dispersal of Korthalsella
            • Korthalsella flowers
            • Associates of Korthalsella
          • Root parasites
          • Saprophytes
        • Epiphytes
          • NZ
            • Typical
            • Occasional
            • Hemi-epiphytes
            • Ephemeral
            • NZ list
        • Monocots
          • Orchids
            • Structure
          • Grasses
        • Dicots
          • Hebes
          • Kowhai
          • Coprosma
          • Beech
          • Rata
        • Carnivorous
        • Deciduous plants
        • Aquatic plants
      • Poisonous natives
      • Threatened plant lists
      • What's a vascular plant?
      • Club mosses
    • Non Vascular
      • Bryophytes
        • Liverworts
        • Mosses
        • Hornworts
      • Algae
        • Seaweeds
      • Lichens
    • Plant identification
      • Written descriptions
      • Experts
      • Plant keys
        • Key to parasitic plant genera
      • Collecting plants
        • Should I collect
        • Choosing a specimen
        • Field notes
        • Fresh plant material
        • Pressing and drying
        • Mounting specimens
        • Labelling specimens
    • Fungi
    • Make your own book
    • Quiz
  • Threats
    • Exotic Plants (Weeds)
      • Unwanted organisms
      • DOC weeds
      • Plant me instead
      • Pest Plant Accord
    • Pest Animals
      • Mammals
        • Mustelids
        • Rodents
        • Ungulates
        • Possums
      • Fish
      • Insects
    • Other threats
      • Natural events
        • Insects
      • Human induced
        • Habitat loss
        • Collection
        • Climate change
  • Ecosystems
    • Plant communities
      • Dunes
        • Volcanic
        • Coastal
          • Pingao research
          • What you can do
          • Common species
          • Research on dunes
          • Threats
      • Wetlands
        • Estuaries
          • Common estuarine species
          • Research on estuaries
        • Ephemeral
        • Restiad peat bogs
      • Forests
        • Kauri-podocarp-broadleaved
        • Podocarp broadleaved
        • Beech
      • Scrub/shrublands
        • Geothermal
          • Distribution of geothermal vegetation
          • Geothermal plants
          • Geothermal vegetation types
          • Threats to geothermal vegetation
        • Frost flat/hollow
        • Manuka fens
        • Gumlands
      • Grasslands
        • Tussock grasslands
      • Bare ground
        • Braided rivers
        • Alpine
        • Cliff
        • Scree and boulderfields
        • Shingle beaches
      • Herbfields
        • Saltpan
    • Ecosystem services
    • Novel ecosystems
  • Publications
    • Plant lists
      • How to prepare a plant list
      • National plant lists
      • Plant lists by region
      • Search plant lists
    • Botanical Society journals
    • Newsletter
    • NZPCN publications
    • Documents
  • Conservation
    • Seedbank
      • Project 2 - Alpine flora and the Forget-Me-Nots
      • Project 3 - Kowhai and its relatives
      • Project 1 - Pohutukawa, Rata and Myrtaceae
      • Project 4 - Podocarps and trees of the forest
    • Training
      • Module 1: Plant life
      • Module 2: Covenants
      • Module 3: Propagation
      • Module 4: Wetlands
      • Pilot course 2006
    • Restoration
      • Gardening
        • Being weed wise
        • Garden plants
          • Ferns
          • Climbers
          • Trees and shrubs
          • Broad-leaved herbs
          • Grass-like herbs
        • Attracting wildlife
        • Planting for lizards
          • Rules
      • Species recovery
        • Plant translocations
      • Ecological restoration
        • Case studies
          • Tavora Reserve
          • Waiwhakareke
      • Revegetation
      • Eco-sourcing
      • Find a restoration group
    • Monitoring
      • Number count
        • Number count method
        • Pros and cons of number counts
        • Data analysis and interpretation
      • Presence/absence surveys
        • Presence/absence survey methods
        • Pros and cons of presence/absence surveys
        • Data analysis and interpretation
      • Mapping spatial extent
        • Pros and cons of spatial extent mapping
        • Data analysis and interpretation
        • Spatial extent mapping methods
      • Photo points
        • Photo point guidelines
    • Habitat protection
      • Legal protection
        • Nga Whenua Rahui
        • QEII covenants
        • DOC Covenants
      • Animal pest control
      • Weed control
      • Fencing
    • Funding
    • Botanic gardens
  • NZPCN
    • Members
    • Council members
      • Council 2009
      • Council 2010
      • Council 2011
      • Council 2012
      • Council 2013
      • NZPCN council member profiles
      • Council 2003
      • Council 2004
      • Council 2005
      • Council 2006
      • Council 2007
      • Council 2008
      • Council 2014
      • Council 2015
      • Council 2016
      • Council 2017
      • Council 2018
      • Council 2019
      • Council 2020
      • Council 2021
      • Council 2022
      • Council 2023
    • Awards
      • NZPCN Awards
        • 2018
        • 2016
        • 2015
        • 2014
        • 2013
        • 2012
        • 2011
        • 2010
        • 2009
        • 2008
        • 2007
        • 2006
        • 2005
        • 2017
        • 2019
        • 2022
    • David Given Scholarship
      • David Given Scholarship Recipients
    • Events
      • Conference 2019
      • Conference 2017
      • Conference 2015
        • Speakers
        • Workshops
        • Field trips
        • Charity auction
      • Conference 2013
        • Speakers
        • Timetable
      • Conference 2022
        • 2022 conference field trips
        • 2022 conference workshops
        • Code of conduct
        • 2022 conference sponsors
        • COVID-19 information
        • Abstract and poster submission
        • 2022 Conference venue and accommodation
        • 2022 conference postponement
        • Conference Workshop: Restoration Pathways
        • Conference programme summary
      • 2023 Restoration Pathways Workshop
    • Shop
    • Favourite Plant
    • Join
    • News
    • Donate
    • Trilepidea newsletter
    • Why join NZPCN?
  • Contact us
  • Help
    • FAQ
      • The Network
      • Network website
      • New Zealand plants
      • The law
      • Your discoveries
      • Joining the Network
    • Query
    • Glossary