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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.

4. Carpodetus, Forst

4. Carpodetus, Forst.

A shrub or small tree. Leaves alternate, petiolate, exstipulate. Flowers small, white, in axillary and terminal cymose panicles. page 137Calyx-tube turbinate, adnate to the ovary; lobes 5–6, small, deciduous. Petals 5–6, inserted under the margin of an epigynous disc, spreading, valvate. Stamens 5–6, inserted with the petals; filaments short, subulate; anthers oblong. Ovary inferior with a free rounded summit, 3–5-celled; style slender; stigma capitate; ovules numerous. Fruit globose, almost fleshy, indehiscent, girt round the middle by the cicatrix of the calyx-limb, 3–5-celled. Seeds numerous, small, pendulous; testa coriaceous, pitted; embryo very small; albumen fleshy.

The genus is limited to a single species, endemic in New Zealand.

  • 1. C. serratus, Forst. Char. Gen. 34, t. 17A.—A shrub or small tree 15–30 ft. high, with a trunk 6–9 in. diam.; branches often flattened, spreading; young twigs, leaves, petioles, and inflorescence more or less pubescent. Leaves 1–2 in. long, ovate-oblong or elliptical, acute or obtuse, sharply and coarsely serrate, narrowed into a petiole ¼–½ in. long; in young plants often panduriform or irregularly lobed. Panicles broad, many-flowered, shorter than the leaves. Flowers ⅕ in. diam., white, very abundantly produced. Capsule about the size of a small pea, black and shining when fully ripe.—A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 366; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 575; Hook. Ic. Plant. t. 564; Raoul, Choix, 50; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 78; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 59; Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 47; Students' Fl. 138.

    North and South Islands, Stewart Island: Not uncommon from the North Cape southwards; most plentiful in alluvial ground, by the banks of rivers, &c. Ascends to 3000 ft. Piripiriwhata; Putaputawheta. November–January.

    Wood strong and tough, but not durable; sometimes used for axe-handles, &c.