Pittosporum cornifolium A. Cunn.

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Pittosporum cornifolium' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/pittosporum/pittosporum-cornifolium/). Accessed 2024-03-19.

Glossary

entire
With an unbroken margin.
epiphyte
Plant growing on trees but not parasitic on the host.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
lanceolate
Lance-shaped; broadest in middle tapering to point.
unisexual
Having only male or female organs in a flower.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Pittosporum cornifolium' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/pittosporum/pittosporum-cornifolium/). Accessed 2024-03-19.

An evergreen shrub 2 to 5 ft high, of neat habit, with the slender young shoots glabrous (or downy only when quite young). Leaves leathery, clustered at the end of the twig only, oval-lanceolate or narrowly obovate, pointed, tapered at the base to a very short stalk, 112 to 314 in. long, 12 to 114 in., wide, entire, quite glabrous. Flowers mostly unisexual, dull red, produced in February and March two to five together at the end of the young twigs; each flower is 13 in. wide, the males borne on very slender, thread-like, downy stalks 12 to 34 in. long, the females on shorter, stouter ones. Sepals and petals awl-shaped, the former much the shorter; anthers yellow. Seed-vessels egg-shaped, 12 in. wide. Bot. Mag., t. 3161.

Native of the North Island of New Zealand up to 2,000 ft altitude; introduced by Allan Cunningham early in the 19th century. It is often found wild growing as an epiphyte on large forest trees or on rocks, rarely in pure earth. It is not hardy at Kew but can be grown in the open air in the south-west. In spite of its epiphytal character it succeeds well in ordinary soil. The flowers have a charming musk-like odour.