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243 a NOTE on the TAXONOMY of AVICENNIA in NEW ZEALAND By 243 A NOTE ON THE TAXONOMY OF AVICENNIA IN NEW ZEALAND by Prudence A. Lynch.* The occurrence of Avicennia in New Zealand is first recorded in the botanical literature by George Forster in his "De Plantis Esculentis Insularum Australium Prodromus" (1786). Forster gave the New Zealand species the name of Avicennia resinifera, in the mistaken belief that the mangroves produced a resinous substance. Since Forster did not visit the North Island, he cannot have collected Avicennia himself, and his description must have been based on specimens collected by earlier botanists, probably those of Banks and Solander (L.B. Moore, quoted in Moldenke, I960). In 1839-41 Dr Ernest Dieffenbach visited New Zealand and made the first collection of plants from the Chatham Islands, recording Avicennia amongst these. Mueller (1864) includes the mangrove among the species of the Chathams, naming it Avicennia officinalis L. on the authority of Sir J.D. Hooker. He notes, however, that the flowerless Eurybia traversii "bears considerable resemblance to Avicennia officinalis." Hooker himself (1864) names the New Zealand mangrove as Avicennia officinalis L. Kirk (1889) gives a description of the New Zealand Avicennia officinalis L. together with a figure. He gives the synonyms of A. tomentosa Jacq. and A. resinifera Forst. and states the occurrence as "from North Cape to Kawhia Harbour on the west coast, and northern part of Tauranga Harbour on the east coast." Cheeseman (1906) also gives the name Avicennia officinalis L. However, he corrects the erroneous Chatham Islands locality, stating that Dieffenbach probably mistook flowerless specimens of Olearia traversii Hook. {Eurybia traversii Muell.) A revision of the genus by Bakhuizen van den Brink appeared in 1921, in which he referred the New Zealand plant to A. marina (Forsk.) Vierh., giving it the status of a variety, A. marina var. resinifera. However, Cockayne (1921,1928) and Baylis (1935,1940,1950) retain the name A. officinalis L., while Allan (1961) describes the New Zealand species as endemic and gives it back the original name of A resinifera Forst. Chapman (in Chapman and Ronaldson, 1958) writes "In New Zealand ... there is only one species, Avicennia marina (Forsk.) Vierh. The [taxonomic] problem is essentially ecological... A marina is a truly widespread species which forms an ecocline with characters that grade with changes of both latitude and longitude." The most recent revision of the genus is that by Moldenke (1960, 1967,1968), who follows Bakhuizen in giving the New Zealand plant varietal status as A. marina var. resinifera. Moldenke (1960) recognises eleven living species and four fossil species of Avicennia, compared with the four species (all living) described by Bakhuizen in 1921. Further, he places the genus Avicennia apart from the Verbenaceae in the separate family Avicenniaceae, as was first proposed by Endlicher (1838) and followed by other writers, including Allan (1961) (Chapman, in press). •Department of Botany, University of Auckland. 244 The characters by which Avicennia officinalis is separated from A. marina include those of leaf shape and flower morphology. In A. officinalis the leaves are obovate or broadly oblong; in A. marina var. resinifera the leaves are broadly lanceolate or elliptic-oblong (Chapman, in press). In A. officinalis the ovary is entirely covered by long silky hairs with a shaggy style and bifid, tapering stigma, much shorter than the style, whereas in A. marina the ovary is glabrous at the base with the upper half quickly becoming covered by silky hairs. The equally obtusely bifid stigma is equal to or longer than the hairless style (Bakhuizen, 1921). On the basis of these characters the New Zealand mangrove clearly belongs to Avicennia marina and its valid name is A. marina (Forsk.) Vierh. var. resinifera (Forst.) Bakh. The variety occurs also in Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland; in New Guinea and New Caledonia; and in the Philippines (Bakhuizen, 1921 ;Moldenke, 1960). ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Professor V.J. Chapman for permission to read part of the manuscript of his forthcoming book on mangroves and for helpful advice; Professor L.H. Millener for his assistance; and Miss M.E. Lloyd for translating the Latin diagnoses and key from Bakhuizen. REFERENCES Allan, H.H. 1961: "The flora of New Zealand." Vol. I. Wellington. Bakhuizen van den Brink, R.C. 1921: Revisio Generis Avieenniae. Bull. Jard. Bot. Buienz. Serie 3, Vol. 3:199-226. Baylis, G.T.S. 1935: Some observations on Avicennia officinalis L. in New Zealand. Unpublished M.Sc. thesis, University of Auckland. Baylis, G.T.S. 1940: Leaf anatomy of the New Zealand mangrove. Trans. Roy. Soc. N.Z. 70: 164-70. Baylis, G.T.S. 1950: Root system of the New Zealand mangrove. Ibid. 78: 509-14. Chapman, V.J. 1972: "Mangrove vegetation." (In press) Chapman, V.J.; Ronaldson, J.W. 1958: The mangTove and salt marsh flats of the Auckland District. N.Z. D.S.I.R. Bull. 125. Cheeseman, T.F. 1906: "Manual of the New Zealand flora". Wellington. Cockayne, L. 1921: The vegetation of the New Zealand-Die vegetation der Erde. XIV. Leipzig. Ed. 2. 1928. Hooker, J.D. 1864: "Handbook of the New Zealand flora." London. Kirk, T. 1889: "The forest flora of New Zealand." Wellington. Moldenke, H.N. 1960: Materials towards a monograph of the genus Avicennia. I, II, and Ul. Phytologia 7: 123-68; 179-232; 259-93. Moldenke, H.N. 1967: Additional notes on the genus Avicennia. I and II Phytologia 14: 301-20; 326-36. III. Phytologia 15: 71-2. Moldenke, H.N. 1968: Additional notes on the genus Avicennia. IV. Phytologia 15: 470-8. Mueller, F. 1864: "The vegetation of the Chatham Islands." Melbourne. .
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