Pittosporum patulum
Common name
pitpat
Synonyms
None
Family
Pittosporaceae
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.
PITPAT
Chromosome number
2n = 24
Current conservation status
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.
2018 | Threatened – Nationally Vulnerable
Previous conservation statuses
2017 | Threatened – Nationally Vulnerable | Qualifiers: CD, PD, RF, Sp
2012 | Threatened – Nationally Endangered | Qualifiers: CD, RF, Sp
2009 | Threatened – Nationally Endangered | Qualifiers: CD, RF, Sp
2004 | Threatened – Nationally Endangered
Brief description
Small tree (tree sized individuals very rare) bearing brownish green leathery leaves that are deeply lobed on juveniles but become smooth as plant ages inhabiting South island mountain valleys. Flowers reddish, on long stalks. Fruit a hard capsule, splitting into two to show the black seeds in a orange pith.
Distribution
Endemic to South Island, found in north-west Nelson, and from eastern Nelson south to the head of Lake Hawea.
Habitat
This is a species of subalpine scrub, and canopy gaps in mountain beech forest. It often occurs in sites that have undergone disturbance (e.g., avalanche chutes, fire induced scrub, and river margins), although it is not always required for regeneration. Strongholds of adults occur in subalpine scrub that are recruiting without disturbance, and bluffs in beech forest are similarly little-disturbed.
Features
Gynodioecious tree up to 5 m tall. Trunk of juvenile and sub adults slender, becoming stouter in adults. Bark firm, pale-brown to grey-brown. Branches ascending to spreading, in juveniles absent or scarce until sub adult stage, becoming more frequent in plants bearing mature foliage; in either case branchlets marked by scars from fallen leaves. Shoots, emergent foliage and peduncles distinctly though sparsely puberulent; hairs fulvous. Leaves coriaceous, dark brown-green, chocolate-brown to dark-green, often blemished along margins with chocolate. Juvenile leaves erecto patent, ascending, 30-60 x 5-8 mm, linear, lamina coarsely toothed, very rarely pinnatifid; leaves of sub adults similar but wider, with margins less deeply toothed, and never pinnatifid; adult foliage crowded toward branchlet ends; petioles stout, 5-15 mm long, lamina 40-50 x 10-20 mm, oblanceolate, narrow-obovate to obovate, rarely elliptic, margins entire, toothed or with fine teeth in upper third, base attenuate, apex obtuse to subacute. Flowers in distinct, terminal, 4-8-10-flowered umbels. Pedicels gracile, 10-20 mm long. Flowers night-fragrant. Sepals 5, 3-6 mm long, narrow-ovate, acute, grey-green pilose hairy, becoming glabrescent. Petals 5, 6-8 mm, broadly lanceolate, apex obtuse to sub acute, recurving almost to base at anthesis, dark-red, pink, very rarely yellow. Male flowers with 5 functional stamens, anthers yellow, stigma rudimentary, rarely functional. Female flowers with 5 rudimentary stamens (often reduced to staminodes), stigma globose, functional. Capsules subglobose, 10 mm diameter, 2-valved, valves initially green, glabrescent, maturing grey-black to charcoal, woody. Mucilage dark orange to red. Seeds 5-8, irregular globose, black, surface glossy.
Similar taxa
Juvenile plants of Pittosporum patulum could be confused with juvenile pokaka (Elaeocarpus hookerianus Raoul) and Aristotelia fruticosa Hook.f. Species from which P. patulum juvenile plants can be distinguished by their tall slender, scarcely branching growth form (divaricating in pokaka and Aristotelia fruticosa), and dark brown-green to chocolate brown, deeply toothed, linear leaves (variable in shape and colour in pokaka and Aristotelia fruticosa). Adult plants are very distinctive and could not easily be confused with anything else.
Flowering
Late spring - mid summer
Flower colours
Red/Pink, Yellow
Fruiting
no information
Propagation technique
Grows readily from cuttings and fresh seed, although sometimes seed germination can vary in this species from 1-3 years. An excellent specimen tree. Although it does well in a range of conditions itprefers a fertile, moist soil.
Threats
Pittosporum patulum is palatable. Ungulates eat juvenile foliage, and possums eat both the juvenile and adult foliage and flowers. Rodents predate seed in litter beneath adult trees, and insect browse can deform new growth. Natural disturbance has eliminated some populations.
Etymology
pittosporum: Pitch seed
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared for NZPCN by P.J. de Lange 30 August 2006. Description adapted from Cooper (1956).
References and further reading
Cooper, R.C. 1956: The Australian and New Zealand species of Pittosporum. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 43: 87-188
NZPCN Fact Sheet citation
Please cite as: de Lange, P.J. (Year at time of access): Pittosporum patulum Fact Sheet (content continuously updated). New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/pittosporum-patulum/ (Date website was queried)