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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.
3 ElÆocarpus, Linn
3 ElÆocarpus, Linn.
Trees. Leaves usually alternate, entire or serrate, exstipulate. Flowers hermaphrodite, rarely polygamous, in axillary racemes. Sepals 4 or 5, distinct, valvate. Petals the same number, laciniate at the apex, inserted round a cushion-shaped torus. Stamens numerous, seated on the torus; anthers long, awned, opening by a terminal slit. Ovary 2–5-celled; ovules 2 or more in each cell, pendulous; style subulate; stigma terminal, simple. Fruit a drupe with a hard or bony stone, which is 2–5-celled or by abortion 1-celled. Seeds solitary in each cell, pendulous; albumen fleshy; cotyledons broad.
page 85A large genus, containing about 60 species. Most plentiful in the hotter parts of India and the Malay Archipelago, a few species only extending to Australia, the Pacific islands, and New Zealand. Both our species are endemic.
| Branchlets silky. Leaves linear-obovate, margins recurved | 1. E. dentatus. |
| Branchlets glabrous. Leaves linear-oblong or lanceolate, margins flat | 2. E. Hookerianus. |
| 1. | E. dentatus, Vahl. Symb. Bot. iii. 66.—A round-headed tree 40–60 ft. in height; trunk slender, straight, 1–3 ft. diam.; branchlets often bare of leaves except at the tips, silky when young. Leaves erect, on short stout petioles ½–1 in. long; blade 2–4 in., linear-oblong obovate-oblong or obovate-lanceolate, narrowed below, obtuse or shortly acuminate, coriaceous, obscurely sinuate-serrate, often white with fine appressed silky hairs beneath; margins recurved. Racemes numerous, 8–12-flowered, silky, usually shorter than the leaves. Flowers drooping, ⅓–½ in. diam., white. Petals obovate-cuneate, lacerate. Stamens 10–20; filaments very short; anthers linear, with a flat recurved tip. Ovary silky, 2-celled. Drupe about ½ in. long, oblong or ovoid, purplish-grey; stone rugose, 1-celled, 1-seeded.—Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 34; T. Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 11; Students' Fl. 76. E. Hinau, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 602; Hook. Ic. Plant. t. 602; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 32. E. Cunninghamii, Raoul, Choix de Plantes, 25. Dicera dentata et D. serrata, Forst. Char. Gen. 80. Eriostemon dentatus, Colla. Hort. Ripul. 52, t. 30.
North and South Islands: Not uncommon in lowland forests from the North Cape to Catlin's River, Otago. Altitudinal range from sea-level to 2000 ft. Hinau. October–November. The fruit was formerly eaten by the Maoris, the pulpy part being rubbed off the stone, steeped in water, and then made into large cakes, which were baked for a day or two. They also obtained a black dye from the bark, which was used for dyeing their flax cloaks, and is still employed for that purpose by a few of the inland tribes. The wood is durable, but is little employed, although a figured variety is now coming into use for panelling and furniture. |
| 2. | E. Hookerianus, Raoul, Choix de Plantes, 26, t. 25.—A small glabrous tree 20–40 ft. high, with a trunk 1–3 ft. diam.; bark pale. Young plants with numerous tortuous and interlaced branches, which bear narrow-linear leaves ½–2 in. long, sinuate or irregularly toothed or lobed or almost pinnatifid, occasionally broadly obovate or almost orbicular. Leaves of mature plants 1½–3 in. long, elliptical or linear-oblong or lanceolate, coriaceous, obtuse, sinuate-crenate or serrate; margins flat; petioles short, ¼–½ in. long. Racemes slender, spreading, shorter than the leaves. Flowers greenish-white, small, drooping. Sepals lanceolate. Petals slightly longer than the sepals, 4–5-lobed at the tip. Drupe similar to that of E. dentatus, but smaller, ⅓ in. long.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 32; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 34; T. Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 12, 13; Students' Fl. 76.
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North and South Islands, Stewart Island: Forests from Mongonui and Kaitaia southwards, but; exceedingly local north of the Auckland Isthmus. Altitudinal range from sea-level to 3000 ft. Pokaka. November–January. The variability of the leaves in young plants is most remarkable. As the young tree grows up it is not uncommon to find on the lower branches a curious mixture of linear, obovate, or almost orbicular leaves, which may be nearly entire or deeply lobulate; while on the upper branches the leaves have already assumed the shape of the mature stage. |