Species
Pimelea telura
Etymology
Pimelea: from the Greek pimele, referring to the seeds
Common Name(s)
Three Kings Pimelea
Current Conservation Status
2012 - At Risk - Naturally Uncommon
Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012
The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2012 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS). This report includes a statistical summary and brief notes on changes since 2009 and replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Authors: Peter J. de Lange, Jeremy R. Rolfe, Paul D. Champion, Shannel P. Courtney, Peter B. Heenan, John W. Barkla, Ewen K. Cameron, David A. Norton and Rodney A. Hitchmough. File size: 792KB
Previous Conservation Status
2009 - At Risk - Naturally Uncommon
2004 - Range Restricted
Qualifiers
2012 - IE, OL
2009 - IE, RR, Sp
Authority
Pimelea telura C.J.Burrows
Family
Thymelaeaceae
Brief Description
Small shrub to 1m tall with erect white-hairy branches bearing pairs of green fleshy poking out leaves, hairy white flowers and white fruit inhabiting the Three Kings Islands. Leaves 8-14mm long by 3-6mm, cupped, leaves underneath flowers larger. Flowers with both male and female parts.
Flora Category
Vascular - Native
Structural Class
Dicotyledonous Trees & Shrubs
Synonyms
None (first described in 2008)
Distribution
Endemic. New Zealand: Three Kings Islands (Manawa Tawhi (Great Island);
Habitat
On Basalt cliffs, rubble slopes and deeply weather basaltic soils. Usually in sparsely vegetated sites or in low windswept scrub dominated by kahikatoa (Leptospermum scoparium var. incanum), Hebe insularis, taupata (Coprosma repens), Disphyma australe subsp. australe, and ferns.
Features
Shrubs, to 1 × 1 m with thick, rather stiff stems, decumbent to suberect or erect. Branches stout, numerous, sympodial. Young branchlets densely covered with appressed, short, white, villous hair, older stems less hairy, pale brown maturing grey. Node buttresses short (0.2 mm), lunate, hidden by hair on young branchlets, prominent after leaf fall. Internode length 1.5–3 mm. Leaves decussate, crowded on young branchlets, on short, brown petioles (0.5–0.8 mm), ascendant, becoming patent or deflexed. Lamina glabrous, glaucous to yellow-green glaucescent, 8–14 × 3–6 mm, leathery, flat to slightly adaxially concave, to cymbiform, ovate to narrow ovate or broad elliptic to narrow elliptic, acute to slightly acuminate (but blunt-pointed), base cuneate. Stomata only on adaxial side. Inflorescences crowded, compact, 3–8-flowered. Involucral bracts 4, ovate to elliptic 8–12 × 4–5 mm. Receptacle very hairy. Plants bisexual. Flowers creamy white, on very short pedicels (0.3 mm). Outside of tube and calyx lobes densely covered with hair; inside hairless or sometimes with sparse hair; tube to 5 mm long, ovary portion 4 mm long, with vertical “stripes” of hair when dry, calyx lobes 3 × 2 mm. Anthers yellow. Ovary summit with dense short hair, extending two-thirds of the way to the base. Fruits ovoid, fleshy, creamy white (sometimes basally flushed pink), 6 × 3 mm. The hypanthium breaks off, irregularly, near the base as the fruits ripen. Seed broad-pyriform, with very thin crest, 3.5 × 2.0 mm.
Similar Taxa
Distinguished from all other New Zealand Pimelea by the larger size, robust growth habit, large, thick leaves, dense hair covering on branchlets, and bisexual, cream-coloured flowers with vertical “stripes” of hair on the ovary portion.
Flowering
October – July
Flower Colours
Cream,White
Fruiting
October – July
Propagation Technique
Not known from cultivation. All past attempts to cultivate this species have eventually failed. Though easily grown from cuttings, and sometime seed, P. telura has proved fickle in cultivation and plants rarely persist for longer than one - two years.
Threats
A Naturally Uncommon, range-restricted, often sparsely distributed island endemic under no obvious threats. At a few places, such as Bald Hill, Great Island, hybrids between P. telura and a member of the P. urvilleana complex have been found. This is one of the few places where the distribution of these two species overlaps on the Three Kings archipelago. Previously recorded as Pimelea aff. tomentosa (c) (AK 228145; Three Kings) in de Lange et al., 2004, Threatened and uncommon plants on New Zealand, New Zealand Journal of Botany 42: 45-76.
Chromosome No.
2n = 36
Endemic Taxon
Yes
Endemic Genus
No
Endemic Family
No
This page last updated on 6 Jan 2019