Corokia buddleioides
Common names
korokio
Biostatus
Native – Endemic taxon
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons
Simplified description
Shrub with narrow pointed glossy leaves that are white underneath inhabiting the northern North Island. Leaves somewhat leathery, 5–15cm long by 1–3cm wide, with white fuzz underneath. Flower yellow, arranged in a short spike. Fruit red or dark red.
Flower colours
Yellow
Detailed description
Much-branched shrub up to 3 m or more tall. Branchlets slender, not divaricate; bark dark, rough. Leaves alternate, coriaceous, 50–150 × 10–30 mm, on stout petioles up to 10 mm long; lamina narrow- to rather broad-lanceolate, acuminate to acute. Panicles terminal and axillary, up to 50 mm long. Flowers approximately 7–10 mm diameter; calyx-segments ovate-oblong, obtuse, approximately 2–3 mm long; petals bright to pale yellow, approximately 5 mm long, ovate-lanceolate-oblong, subacute. Drupes bright to dark red to black, approximately 6–7 mm long.
Distribution
North Island. Northland south to outliers in New Plymouth and the volcanic plateau, not seen east of Bay of Plenty.
Habitat
Coastal to lowland forest and forest margins.
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
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Synonyms
Corokia buddleioides var. linearis Cheeseman
Taxonomic notes
Where Corokia buddleioides and C. cotoneaster grow in company, complex hybrid swarms are often seen. Fruit may be produced, but the viability of the seeds has not been tested, though it seems certain that many wild plants of a hybrid population belong to the second filial generation. Carse (1912), when describing the mid-forms as C. cheesemanii says: “This description applies to the type specimens, but the plant appears to pass by regular gradations into C. cotoneaster on the one hand, and into C. buddleioides on the other, with a tendency in one form to a broadening of the leaves bringing the species very close to the Chatham Island C. macrocarpa.”
Analysis of leaf characters has shown that the distinguishing characters of Corokia buddleioides var. linearis (leaf length and width) falls within the natural variation of C. buddleioides (Heenan 2023). Therefore Heenan (2023) concluded that C. buddleioides var. linearis does not warrant taxonomic recognition and should be treated as a synonym of C. buddleioides.
Corokia buddleioides var. buddleioides is an autonym. Autonyms are created with the recognition of comparable infraspecific rank names, in this case Corokia buddelioides var. linearis. In eliminating the variety C. buddelioides var. linearis, the autonym C. buddleioides var. buddleioides is redundant.
Endemic taxon
Yes
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Ecology
Flowering
October–December
Fruiting
November–April
Life cycle and dispersal
Fleshy drupes are dispersed by frugivory (Thorsen et al., 2009).
Other information
Etymology
corokia: From the Maori name korokio or korokia-tarango
buddleioides: Like a buddleia
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.
CORBUD
Chromosome number
2n = 18
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
Referencing and citations
References and further reading
Allan HH. 1961. Flora of New Zealand. Vol. 1. Wellington: Government Printer. pp. 441–442 of 1023 p.
Carse H. 1912. Corokia cheesemanii. Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand 45: 376.
Heenan PB. 2023. Taxonomic notes on the New Zealand flora: the status of four varietal names in Brachyglottis (Asteraceae), Corokia (Argophyllaceae), Mida (Nanodeaceae) and Teucridium (Labiatae). New Zealand Journal of Botany, (published online November 2023) DOI: 10.1080/0028825X.2023.2276282.
Thorsen MJ, Dickinson KJM, Seddon PJ. 2009. Seed dispersal systems in the New Zealand flora. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 11: 285–309.
Attribution
Description adapted by M. Ward from Allan (1961).
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.