.jpg)
Manual of the New Zealand Flora.
2. Fuchsia, Linn
2. Fuchsia, Linn.
Shrubs or small trees. Leaves alternate or opposite or whorled. Flowers axillary, solitary or clustered, rarely in racemes or panicles, usually pendulous, often handsome. Calyx-tube ovoid, produced above the ovary into a tubular or companulate 4-iobed limb. Petals 4, often small, rarely wanting, convolute, spreading or reflexed. Stamens 8; filaments filiform; anthers linear or oblong. Ovary 4-celled; style slender, elongated; stigma capitate, entire or 4-lobed; ovules numerous, attached to the inner angle of the cells. Berry ovoid or oblong, fleshy, 4-celled, many-seeded.
A beautiful and well-known genus of about 60 species, all of which, with the exception of the three following, are natives of America, from Mexico to-Fuegia.
| Shrub or tree 10–40 ft. high. Leaves lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate | 1. F. excorticata. |
| Small shrub with long straggling branches. Leaves ovate or orbicular-ovate | 2.F. Golensoi. |
| Stems very slender, trailing. Leaves small, orbicular-ovate | 3. F. procumbens. |
| 1. | F. excorticata, Linn. f. Suppl. 217.— A shrub or small tree 40 ft. high; trunk usually 6–18 in. diam., but sometimes reaching 2–3 ft.; bark thin, loose and papery; branches brittle. Leaves alternate, 2–5 in. long including the slender petiole, ovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, acuminate, entire or obscurely and remotely toothed, thin and membranous, green above, pale and silvery beneath. Flowers ¾–1¼ in. long, axillary, solitary, pendulous; pe-duncles long, slender. Calyx-tube inflated at the base, then suddenly contracted and again expanded into a funnel-shaped tube; lobes 4, acuminate, spreading. Petals 4, small. Stamens and style very variable in length. Berry oblong, purplish-black, juicy, in. long.—Lindl. in Bot. Reg. t. 857; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 533; Raoul, Choix, 49; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 56; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 75; Kirk, Forest Fl t. 36, 36a; Students' Fl. 180. Skinnera excorticata, Forst. Char. Gen. 58; Prodr. n. 163; A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 331.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island: Abundant from the North Cape southwards. Sea-level to over 3000 ft. Native fuchsia; Kotukutuhu; the fruit Konini. August–December. page 187The flowers are trimorphic, there being a long-styled form in which the stamens have short filaments and often abortive anthers, and mid-styled and short-styled forms in which the stamens have longer filaments and perfect anthers, the last two apparently graduating into one another. For a detailed account see a paper by Mr. Kirk in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, vol. xxv., p. 261. |
| 2. | F. Colensoi, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 728.—A small shrub with long straggling branches, sometimes producing slender flexuous unbranched shoots several feet in length. Leaves alternate, very variable in size, ½–2 in. long including the petiole, ovate or orbicular-ovate, rounded or cordate at the base, thin and membranous, entire or obscurely toothed; petioles often longer than the blade. Flowers much as in F. excorticata, but shorter and proportionately broader, and petals smaller.—Kirk, Students' Fl. 181.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island: From the Northern Wairoa River southwards, but often local. Sea-level to 1500 ft. October–February. A very variable plant, large forms of which almost pass into F. excorticata. |
| 3. | F. procumbens, R. Cunn. ex A. Cunn. Precur. n. 534.— Stems very slender, much branched, prostrate and trailing, often several feet long. Leaves alternate; blade ¼–¾ in. long, rounded-ovate or almost orbicular, cordate at the base, obscurely sinuate-toothed, membranous; petioles very slender, longer than the blade. Flowers axillary, solitary, erect, ½–¾ in. long; peduncles short, ¼–½ in. Calyx-tube cylindric, without raised ridges, pale-orange; lobes sharply reflexed, purple at the tips, green at the base. Petals wanting. Stamens erect, always exserted; filaments slender. Style longer or shorter than the stamens, or equal to them. Berry large, oblong or obovoid, in. long, bright-red, glaucous.—Hook. Ic. Plant, t. 421; Raoul, Choix, 49; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 57; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 76, 728; Sot. Mag. t. 6139; Kirk, Students' Fl. 181. F. Kirkii, Hook. f. in Ic. Plant, t. 1083.
North Island: Sandy and rocky places near the sea, rare and local. North Cape district, J. Adams and T. F. C.; Ahipara, R. J. Matthews! Matauri, A. Cunningham; Whangaruru, Kirk! Whangarei Heads and near Ngunguru, T. F. C.; Cape Colville Peninsula, J. Adams! Great Barrier Island, Kirk! A beautiful and graceful little plant, remarkable for being the only species known with erect flowers. As in F. excorticata, the flowers are trimorphic. In the long-styled form the flowers are smaller and narrower, much less brightly coloured, the style is exserted far beyond the anthers, the stigma is very large, and the anthers rather smaller. The mid-styled and short-styled forms appear to vary into one another: in the first the style usually equals the anthers, in the second it is shorter and included within the calyx-tube. The stamens are of equal length in all the forms. |