Phil Bendle Collection:Pomaderris amoena (Tauhinu)

Kingdom: Plantae
Superphylum: Tracheophyta
Phylum: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Rosales
Family: Rhamnaceae
Genus: Pomaderris
Species: P. amoena
Scientific name: Pomaderris amoena
Synonyms: Pomaderris phylicifolia var. ericifolia Pomaderris ericafolia
Common name: Tauhinu (other members of the genus: Pomaderris are also called Tauhinu), Wrinkle-leaf pomaderris

Pomaderris amoena is a small indigenous shrub that can be common locally. Pomaderris is a genus of around 70 species most of which are endemic to Australia.
Pomaderris amoena is endemic to the Three Kings Islands, the North and the South Islands where it is generally scarce. It has a preference for open habitats on coastal farmlands and coastal open shrublands, roadside banks, rocky headlands, sand country and the northern gumlands on the east coast of the North Island. It is occasionally found well inland in montane situations.

Pomaderris amoena is a small, sprawling, fast-growing, perennial shrub growing up to a maximum height of 3 metres in 10–15 years. Its leaves and stems are covered in unbranched hairs. The wrinkled, undivided, narrow-linear, bright green leaves are 5-10mm long by 1-2mm wide. The leaves margins are rolled under and the midrib is recessed. They are attached by a stipule, singly along the stems.

From mid-September to summer clusters of creamy yellow, bisexual, symmetric flowers (4 mm diam) appear in many-flowered panicles. The flowers have no petals, 5 sepals, 5 stamens and 5 sepals which look like petals. The seeds are small and germinate easily on bare soils.

The early Maori made large wooden fish hooks for big prey such as häpuku (groper) from the hard roots of the tauhinu tree. These were further them hardened by fire.

  

The flowering buds
 

Thanks to Wikipedia for text and information: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

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