Fuchsia procumbens
Common name
creeping fuchsia, climbing fuchsia, trailing fuchsia
Synonyms
Fuchsia kirkii Hook.f.
Family
Onagraceae
Flora category
Vascular – Native
Endemic taxon
Yes
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lianes & Related Trailing Plants - 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.
FUCPRO
Chromosome number
2n = 22
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 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: Sp
Previous conservation statuses
2009 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon
2004 | Sparse
Distribution
Endemic. North Island from the Ninety Mile Beach and Perpendicular Point south to Maunganui Bluff in the west and Kennedy Bay (Coromandel Peninsula) in the east. It is known as a naturalised plant on Kapiti Island.
Habitat
A strictly coastal species. F. procumbens has been collected from cobble/gravel beaches, coastal cliff faces, coastal scrub and grassland, dune slacks and swales, and from the margins of saltmarshes (in places where it would be inundated during spring tides). It is quite tolerant of naturalised grasses and may be found growing amongst dense swards of kikuyu grass (Pennisetum clandestinum Chiov.).
Features
Subdioecious, lianoid, creeping, glabrescent, prostrate shrub forming large scrambling masses. Stems woody, pliant, slender 3-6 mm diameter, up to 2 m long; branchlets even more slender. Petioles filiform, 15-30 mm long, glabrous or sparsely hairy. Leaves 5-20 x 5-20 mm, suborbicular to broad-ovate, membranous, glabrous to glabrate, sinuate, subserrulate; base subcordate; apex obtuse or rounded. Flowers solitary, erect, pedicels erect, 5-8 mm long, slender. Flora tube 6-12 mm long, golden yellow, tubular-campanulate. Sepals 5-8 mm, lanceolate or narrow-lanceolate, purplish at apices, sharply reflexed. Petals absent. Filaments 2-4 mm, slender, purple. Style 8-16 mm, > staminodes in female flowers, almost = to stamens in perfect flowers; stigma capitate to 4-lobed. Berry 15-25 x 5-10 mm, ovoid-oblong to obovoid, crimson to magenta often with a waxy bloom.
Similar taxa
None.
Flowering
September - May
Flower colours
Violet/Purple, Yellow
Fruiting
November - July
Life cycle
Fleshy berries are dispersed by invertebrate frugivory (Thorsen et al., 2009).
Propagation technique
Easy from layered pieces, fresh seed and semi-hardwood cuttings. A remarkably adaptable plant that can be grown in most situations. It makes an excellent ground cover and is ideal for a hanging basket.
Threats
At various times regarded as seriously threatened, partly because some populations comprise only the single sex-type. However, comprehensive surveys throughout this species range have discovered new populations and confirmed the persistence of the majority of the older sites. Indeed its range has hardly contracted, and it would seem that the distribution of sex-types is natural. Because the species is so tolerant of environmental disturbance and weeds it is now regarded as biologically sparse. However, some populations have been eliminated recently by coastal development for holiday homes. If this trend continues then this species will probably qualify for a higher level of threat in the not to distant future.
Etymology
fuchsia: After Leonhart Fuchs (17 Jan 1501 - 10 May 1566), a German physician and regarded as one of the three founding fathers of botany.
procumbens: Sprawling
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by P.J. de Lange for NZPCN (1 June 2013)
References and further reading
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): Fuchsia procumbens Fact Sheet (content continuously updated). New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/fuchsia-procumbens/ (Date website was queried)