Identifying Plants Flashcards
Houhere
The foliage is very variable on young plants, being ovate or rounded and variously lobed or toothed. Adult leaves are alternate, lanceolate, acuminate, glabrous, dentate, light glossy green above and paler on the undersides. In late summer and autumn it develops white scented, star-shaped flowers which are up to 2.5cm across and displayed in 2-5 flowered cymes in the leaf axil. It is a fast growing evergreen tree growing to 8 tall by 6 m broad. It has steeply ascending stems and branches. The smaller branches become drooping or even pendulous as the tree matures give the tree a graceful weeping habi
Akeake
The leaves are simple elliptical, 4–7.5 cm long and 1–1.5 cm broad, alternate in arrangement, and they secrete a resinous substance. The flowers (7mm) are dioecious; small, yellow-green, lacking petals. The male and female flowers are generally on different trees. The yellow to orange-red flowers are yellow to orange-red and are produced on panicles about 2.5 cm in length. Flowering occurs spring to mid-summer.
The fruit is a capsule (1.5 cm wide) with thin, flat, papery, rounded wings. This 3 sided pod contains 3 dark brown or black seeds. The pod is green, ageing to pink to tan. The fruits have been used as a substitute for hops.
The bark separates into long stripes. The wood is extremely tough and durable, and New Zealand’s Maori have used Akeake to fashion clubs and other weapons
Kanona
Native shrub or small tree with male and female flowers on separate trees. It has a slender trunk and hairless branches or branchlets. It has the largest leaves (15 cm long or more) of any New Zealand coprosma. The oval leaves have a raised midrib on the upper surface and there are domatia on the underside. The leaves have a distinct vein pattern often there is a mottled appearance on the leaf’s top surface.
C. grandifolia produces ripe orangey-red drupes between February and May, and then flowers again during spring.
The tree’s inner bark is a vivid yellow/orange colour and was used as a dye by the early Maoris
Hangehange
Hangehange is a bushy shrub up to 4 m in height. The bright greens opposite shiny pointed oval leaves are 4-8 cm long and are soft and shiny.
It has tiny greenish white perfumed flowers in spring. The flowers are borne in groups (cymes) up to 3 cm in diameter at the base of leaves and along the branches and trunk of the bush (cauliflorous). Each flower has five, 3 mm long sepals that alternate with five petals that are joined into a 6 mm long green-to-white tube with spreading, hairy lobes. Five short stamens are around a single ovary. The black fruit develop late summer and are a 4-6 mm diameter dry capsule which splits into 2 valves. When the seed capsule opens it reveals seeds that are held within an enlarged pulpy placenta exposing only their dark tips.
Traditional use by the Maori - To add flavour, food was wrapped in the shiny leaves prior to steaming in the hangi. Its sap was applied to the skin and the bark was used for the itch
Kowaowao
Epiphytic fern native to Australia and New Zealand. The glossy, bright, green fronds vary in shape and size. Fronds may be simple fronds tapering gradually at the base, acuminate at the apex to 22.5 cm long and 1.5 cm wide, to deeply pinnatifid to 37.5 cm long and up to15 cm wide. They spread by fragmentation of the conspicuous bright green and brown hairy rhizomes. Fronds are bright green, glossy and leathery. They are uncut and strap-shaped in young plants and once-cut on mature plants. It is common in coastal to montane areas. It is often epiphytic (growing on trees), usually in slightly drier places. It has thick rhizomes and large round sori (spore capsules) on the underside of fertile fronds
Kahikatea
The tree grows to a height of 55 m with a trunk exceeding one m in diameter, and is buttressed at the base and lives to over 500 years. Kahikatea are sometimes called dinosaur trees because they existed alongside the dinosaurs during the Jurassic period
Kanuka
Varies in size, from a shrub to a tree 10 m or more in height. Kanuka’s bark is light brown and thicker than the more common manuka. The wood is white, whereas manuka has red timber. The small needle-like leaves of Kanuka and Manuka are very similar. Manuka leaves tend to be larger and more aromatic. The easiest way to tell Manuka and Kanuka apart is that manuka has larger flowers and large (half cm across) woody seed capsules that remain on the tree for a long time.
Kanuka flowers are much smaller, tend to be in bunches, and the small seed capsules are shed within the year. Both trees tend to have white flowers in the wild
Karamu
It has dark green leaves approximately 5-13cm long and 3-4 cm wide. The centre vein of the leaf is not raised on the top surface. The main vien is raised on the under surface.. The tree itself is either a shrub or small tree that can grow up to 6m tall. The stipules have a single, shiny black gland at the tips.
Coprosma robusta produces masses of orange berries in late Summer. When berries are present, they are 8-9mm long and can take up to a year to ripen. Birds enjoy the masses of orange fruit on female plants
Kohekohe
Kohekohe produces panicles of scented white flowers directly from the trunk or branches. Kohekohe is notable for having characteristics normally associated with trees growing in the tropics. This strange habit is called cauliflory. The pinnate leaves are large and glossy. Kohekohe flowers are an important and favoured source of floral nectar for Tui and Bellbird
Mahoe
It grows up to 10 metres high with a trunk up to 60 cm in diameter, it has smooth, whitish bark and brittle twigs.
The dark-green “alternate” leaves are 5-15 cm long and 3-5 cm wide and their edges are finely serrated (although this feature is less pronounced in younger plants).
The plants are dioecious and the small flowers are yellowish in colouration, between 3 and 4 mm in diameter and occur in fascicles, growing straight out from naked twigs- these flowers have a strong, pleasant fragrance. The berries are a striking violet colour when ripe and are more or less spherical with a diameter of between 3 and 4 mm. Flowering occurs in late spring and on into summer while the berries appear later on in summer and also in autumn
Matipo
It has crinkly-edged leaves which make it easily mistaken for a pittosporum and reddish bark and stems. Growing to around 6 metres in height, it inhabits bush margins. The bark on a mature trunk is grey. Mapou produce very small black fruit in summer (popular with birds) these grow directly on the stem of the plant, not at the end of branches and twigs
