Genus Pittosporum Banks

Pittosporum cf. colensoi Hook. f.

1853. Pittosporum colensoi Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i 22.

1925. —— Cheesem. Man. N.Z Fl. (2nd Ed.) 487 (with synonomy).

1928. Pittosporum oblongum W. R. B. Oliver Trans. N.Z. Inst. 59: 299. Fig. 14.

Locality. Ormond B195/32.

Age. Castlecliffian.

In comparing the Waipaoa specimen with P. colensoi, Oliver found that the fossil had a broader basal angle and wider angles of divergence of the secondary veins. Leaves of recent specimens of P. colensoi are extremely variable and are hard to differentiate from other species of the group P. tenuifolium Banks et Sol, P. colensoi Hook, f., and P. fasciculatum Hook, f., of Cheeseman (1925).

The fossil is very similar to specimens of P. colensoi in the Herbarium of the Dominion Museum, and the basal angle is close to plants from Bluff (coll. 1945) and Banks Peninsula (coll. Armstrong). The angles of divergence of the secondary veins is close to those of the Banks Peninsula specimens.