Melicytus crassifolius
Common names
thick-leaved mahoe
Biostatus
Native – Endemic taxon
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons
Simplified description
Rigid dense small hard shrub with many thick tapering grey speckled branches bearing clusters of upward-pointing small dark green oval leaves mainly inhabiting coastal areas. Leaves thick, variable, about 1-2cm long, widest near the middle. Flowers inconspicuous, bell-shaped, underneath branches. Fruit white, usually with purple patches.
Flower colours
Green, Yellow
Detailed description
Dioecious, stout, heavily branched, very bushy and leafy, spreading shrub up to 2 x 2 m (usually much less). Trunk 1-4 arising from ground, up to 100 mm d.b.h., bark orange-green to green, grey to grey-white in exposed situations, finely lenticellate. Branches numerous at first erect to suberect, soon spreading often decurved and touching the ground; branchlets more or less intertwinned, filiramulate, weakly divaricate; puberulent becoming glabrous, stout, flexuous tapering toward apex, not spinous at tips. Petioles 2-4 mm long, yellow-green to green, fleshy to fleshy-coriaceous. Leaves solitary on young rapidly growing branchlets, otherwise in dense fascicles, often on short shorts; lamina 5-20 x 3-70 mm, dark green, narrowly obovate-oblong, spathulate to elliptic, apex obtuse or retuse, cuneately narrowed to base; margins more or less revolute, usually entire very rarely with 1-2 assymetric lobes, somewhat thicker than the rest of lamina. Flowers c.3 mm diameter, solitary or in 2-3-flowered fascicles; yellow-green. Pedicels bracteate, curved to recurved, rarely straight 1.5-2 mm long. Sepals green, suborbicular, with fimbriate margins; petals 5, c. 3 mm long, pale green to lemon-yellow, narrow-oblong, recurving form apex to base. Anthers 5, subsessile, fused at base and joined by a fine 5-partite membrane, divisions more or less triangular; nectariferous scales broad. Style bifid. Fruit a berry 3.5 mm, fleshy white or greenish-white, often with a faint glaucous bloom, broadly cylindric to subglobose; seeds (1-)2, ovate to ovate-elliptic.
Similar taxa
This is part of a species complex. The description here is of plants found in lowland and coastal portions of the southern North Island island and coastal eastern Marlborough, which encompasses the type. In the broad sense it is most likely to be confused with M. obovatus from which it can be distinguished by its narrower leaves, lower stature and more intertwinned and spreading branches and usually lemon-yellow flowers. Along the Wellington coastline and eastern Marlborough Sounds the form of M. obovatus found there also differs from M. crassifolius by its perfect rather than dioecious flowering habit.
Distribution
Endemic. North and South Islands. In the North present from Cape Turnagain and Paekakariki south to Cape Palliser and Te Rawhiti, also on the smaller near shore islands as well as Kapiti and Mana Islands. In the S. Island in the Marlborough Sounds east and south to about Kaikoura (exact limits unclear).
Habitat
Coastal to lowland (0-300 m a.s.l.). Usually coastal in open grey scrub, on talus and alluvial terraces, cobble beaches, cliff faces, and in coarse stable sand dunes (especially swales). Inland it may be found in open grassland, amongst kanuka stands (Kunzea ericoides (A.Rich.) Joy Thomps s.l.) and along river flats.
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 | At Risk – Declining
Threats
Heavily browsed by cattle, horses, sheep, possums, rabbits and hares wherever accessible. Otherwise reasonably common though often sparsely distributed over large parts of its range. Recruitment is often lacking in populations accessible to browsing animals.
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Synonyms
Hymenanthera crassifolia Hook.f.
Taxonomic notes
All the small-leaved Melicytus are the subject of an ongoing taxonomic revision. M. crassifolius includes several potentially unnamed species, particularly in the South Island. Once described M. crassifolius will probably have an even more restricted distribution.
Endemic taxon
Yes
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Ecology
Flowering
August - January
Fruiting
October - May
Propagation technique
Easily grown from fresh seed and can be grown from semi-hardwood cuttings. An attractive and very hardy shrub ideal for windy situations. Very drought tolerant once established. Does best in open, sunny, free draining soils.
Other information
Plant of the Month
This plant has been featured as a Plant of the Month – see Trilepidea: NZPCN newsletter for March 2013 for the full story.
Etymology
melicytus: From the Greek meli (honey) and kytos (hollow container), referring to the staminal nectaries of the flowers. Literally “honey-cave”
crassifolius: From the Latin crassus’ thick and folius ‘leaf’
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.
MELCRA
Chromosome number
2n = 64
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 | At Risk – Declining
2012 | At Risk – Declining
2009 | At Risk – Declining
2004 | Sparse
Referencing and citations
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by P.J. de Lange for NZPCN (1 June 2013)
NZPCN Fact Sheet citation
Please cite as: de Lange, P.J. (Year at time of access): Melicytus crassifolius Fact Sheet (content continuously updated). New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/melicytus-crassifolius/ (Date website was queried)