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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.

3. Ixerba, A. Cunn

3. Ixerba, A. Cunn.

A small glabrous tree. Leaves opposite, alternate or whorled, exstipulate. Flowers white, in terminal panicles. Calyx - tube short, adnate to the base of the ovary; lobes 5, imbricate, deciduous. Petals 5, inserted beneath a 5-lobed disc, obovate, clawed, imbricate. Stamens 5, alternating with the lobes of the disc; filaments filiform. Ovary superior, conical, 5-lobed, 5-celled, narrowed into a subulate twisted 5-furrowed style; stigma acute; ovules 2 in each cell, collateral. Capsule coriaceous, broadly ovoid; 5-celled, loculicidally 5-valved; valves extending through the style, ultimately recurved, cohering below, 2-partite above. Seeds large, oblong, compressed, shining; funicle thick; embryo large; albumen very scanty.

A well-marked monotypic genus, confined to New Zealand.

  • 1. I. brexioides, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 580.—A small branching tree 20–50 ft. high, rarely more, with a trunk 1–2 ft. diam. Leaves 3–6 in. long, ⅓–1 in. broad, linear or linear-lanceolate, coriaceous, glabrous, acute or subacute, obtusely serrate; teeth tipped by a gland. Flowers large, 1–1½ in. diam.; pedicels jointed, silky. Calyx-lobes broadly ovate, silky. Capsule ¾ in. diam.—Hook. Ic. Plant. t. 577, 578; Raoul, Choix, 44; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 82; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 59; Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 48; Students' Fl. 138.

    North Island: Hilly forests from Ahipara and Maungataniwha to the northern part of Hawke's Bay. Ascends to 3000 ft. Tawari. November–December.

    A remarkably handsome tree. The wood is hard and dense, and probably durable, but has been little used.