Pittosporum patulum Hook. f.

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Credits

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

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

Glossary

ciliate
Fringed with long hairs.
entire
With an unbroken margin.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
globose
globularSpherical or globe-shaped.
lanceolate
Lance-shaped; broadest in middle tapering to point.
ovate
Egg-shaped; broadest towards the stem.

References

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Credits

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

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

An evergreen shrub or small tree from 6 to 15 ft high; young shoots and flower-stalks downy, glabrous elsewhere. Leaves always narrow in proportion to their length but otherwise variable; on young plants they are 1 to 2 in. long, as little as 18 in. wide, and conspicuously lobed their whole length; as the plants reach maturity the leaves become wider (38 to 12 in.), more or less shallowly toothed, often almost or quite entire, and of lanceolate shape; they are of leathery texture. Flowers rather bell-shaped, borne in May, four to eight together in a terminal cluster, each borne on a slender, downy stalk 12 in. long, very fragrant; petals nearly 12 in. long, oblong, blunt-ended, blackish crimson; sepals ovate-lanceolate, pointed, ciliate. Seed-vessels globose, 13 in. wide, woody.

Native of the South Island, New Zealand, at from 2,000 to 4,000 ft altitude; very local in its distribution. Its flowers are said to be the most fragrant of all New Zealand pittosporums. It is also one of the hardiest, and succeeds well at Wakehurst Place in Sussex, where there is a narrow bush in the open ground 28 ft high (1975).