Coprosma talbrockiei
Synonyms
None (described in 1974)
Family
Rubiaceae
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.
COPTAL
Chromosome number
2n = 44
Current conservation status
The conservation 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). 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.
2012 | Threatened – Nationally Critical | Qualifiers: RR, Sp
Previous conservation statuses
2009 | Threatened – Nationally Endangered | Qualifiers: RF, RR, Sp
2004 | Range Restricted
Brief description
Very rare ground hugging herb with numerous small very sharp-tipped light green leaves in whorls of three around the soft stem inhabiting Northwestern Nelson. Flowers small, with both male and female parts. Fruit white, covered in rough thin flakes.
Distribution
Endemic. New Zealand; South Island (north-west Nelson, mainly in the Gouland Downs and Aorere area, but also on north side of the Buller Catchment)
Habitat
Lowland to subalpine. Usually in sparsely vegetated, open sites overlying granite where it grows on peat, amongst cobbles or within poorly draining impoverished soils, in association with moss cushions, lichen or within Donatia J.R.Forst. et G.Forst. cushions
Features
Plant glabrous; stems of leafy twigs to 2 mm diameter, only slightly woody, prostrate, branching freely, rooting at some nodes; internodes mostly shorter than leaf length. Leaves 3 at a node; stipular cup deep, bearing only a single minute denticle in each interpetiolar space, sheath lacking; leaf abscission zone obscure and dead leaves commonly remaining attached to rim of cup; lamina c.5-7 × 1 mm, entire, narrow-elliptic, tapering to long-acuminate tip; midrib only visible vein but reticulation obvious in dead leaves; on proximal nodes lamina often smaller, submembranous, and bract-like. Flower bisexual, solitary, terminal, usually subtended by three unmodified leaves which are very occasionally succeeded by a minute floral bract. Calyx shortly tubular, 0.5-1.5 mm long; lobes 4-6, triangular, apiculate, sometimes almost into a hair. Corolla tube 3-5 mm long, widening above to diameter of 2.5 mm, cream-coloured; lobes 4-7 (not always uniform in a single flower) slightly incurved, inner surface or border papillose. Stamens 4-7, attached to receptacle; filaments white, elongating as flower ages and finally much exceeding corolla, sometimes of different lengths. Anthers 0.8-1.0 mm long, dorsifixed, sometimes slightly tailed; connective dark, apiculate. Style if present, very short; stigmas 2-5, white, to 9 mm long, filiform, very shortly hairy. Ovary c.1.5 mm long, often, though probably not invariably, 3-locular. Fruit c. 5 mm in diameter, globose, crowned by hardened calyx lobes, whitish, the surface rough with scurfy scales formed by rather regular fragmentation of epidermis; mesocarp opaque; pyrenes usually 3, c.2.5 × 1.7 mm.
Similar taxa
Of the New Zealand species Coprosma talbrockiei is most similar to C. atropurpurea (Cockayne et Allan) L.B. Moore. Both species possess stipules with one median tooth only, and that are not ciliate or sheathing; they also lack a definite leaf abscission zone; while the leaves are usually acute to acuminate, and often hair-tipped. Coprosma atropurpurea differs from C. talbrockiei by the leaves which have at least some stiff retrorse hairs (rather than glabrous), thicker, woody rhizomes (rather than very slender, scarcely woody, thread like rhizomes and stems), invariably unisexual rather than bisexual flowers, and translucent, dark red to almost purple-black rather than opaque, white, scurfy fruits.
Flowering
December - April
Flower colours
Cream
Fruiting
April - May
Life cycle
Fleshy drupes are dispersed by frugivory (Thorsen et al., 2009).
Propagation technique
Difficult. Should not be removed from the wild.
Threats
Known from only eight populations. Although the majority of the populations occur within Kahurangi National Park, none of the populations are large, all seem to be experiencing recruitment failure (fruit is produced but seedlings are scarce). Gorse (Ulex europaeus) may pose a threat at some sites.
Etymology
coprosma: From the Greek kopros ‘dung’ and osme ‘smell’, referring to the foul smell of the species, literally ‘dung smell’
Where To Buy
Not commercially available
Notes on taxonomy
Probably not a Coprosma. nrDNA ITS and ETS sequences place this species in the Australian endemic genus Durringtonia R.J.F.Hend. et Guymer.
Attribution
Description adapted from Moore and Mason (1974)
References and further reading
Moore, L.B.; Mason, R. 1974: Coprosma talbrockiei sp. nov. and Allied Creeping Species (Rubiaceae). New Zealand Journal of Botany 12: 137-48.
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