Melicytus ramiflorus is a small tree of the family Violaceae

Violaceae

Violaceae are a family of flowering plants consisting of about 800 species in 21 genera. It takes its name from the genus Viola, the violets and pansies.Older classifications such as the Cronquist system placed Violaceae in an order named after it, the Violales...

 endemic

Endemic (ecology)

Endemism is the ecological state of being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation or other defined zone, or habitat type; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, all species of lemur are endemic to the...

 to New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

.

It grows up to 10 metres high with a trunk up to 60 cm in diameter, it has smooth, whitish bark and brittle twigs. The dark-green "alternate" leaves are 5-15 cm long and 3-5 cm wide and their edges are finely serrated ( although this feature is less pronounced in younger plants).The plants are dioecious

Dioecious

Dioecy is the property of a group of biological organisms that have males and females, but not members that have organs of both sexes at the same time. I.e., those whose individual members can usually produce only one type of gamete; each individual organism is thus distinctly female or male...

 and the small flowers are yellowish in colouration, between 3 and 4 mm in diameter and occur in fascicles

Fascicle (botany)

In botany, a fascicle is a bundle of leaves or flowers, or of the vascular tissues that supply these organs with nutrients...

, growing straight out from naked twigs- these flowers have a strong, pleasant fragrance. The berries are a striking violet colour when ripe and are more or less spherical with a diameter of between 3 and 4 mm. Flowering occurs in late spring ( southern hemisphere )- and on into summer while the berries appear later on in summer and also in autumn.

The berries of this small tree are eaten by a number of native birds, including Kererū

Kereru

The New Zealand Pigeon or kererū is a bird endemic to New Zealand. Māori call it Kererū in most of the country but kūkupa and kūkū in some parts of the North Island, particularly in Northland...

 and Tui

Tui

As a noun, Tui may refer to:* Tu'i , a title of nobility in Polynesia and some of Melanesia* Tui Awards, New Zealand's annual music industry awards* Tui , a brand of New Zealand beer produced by Tui Breweries...

, while geckos

GeckOS

GeckOS is an experimental operating system for MOS 6502 and compatible processors. It offers some Unix-like functionality including preemptive multitasking, multithreading, semaphores, signals, binary relocation, TCP/IP networking via SLIP and a 6502 standard library.GeckOS includes native support...

 of the genus Naultinus have also been observed to supplement their primarily insectivorous diet with consumption of these berries.
Māhoe is ubiquitous throughout lower altitude New Zealand forest

Forest

A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...

s and is frequently seen in areas of regenerating forest.

Subspecies

In former analyses, four subspecies of M. ramiflorus were recognised: subsp. ramiflorus of New Zealand, subsp. oblongifolius of Norfolk Island

Norfolk Island

Norfolk Island is a small island in the Pacific Ocean located between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. The island is part of the Commonwealth of Australia, but it enjoys a large degree of self-governance...

, subsp. fastigiata of Fiji

Fiji

Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...

 and subsp. samoensis of Samoa

Samoa

Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in...

 and Tonga

Tonga

Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga , is a state and an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprising 176 islands scattered over of ocean in the South Pacific...

. More recent studies, especially that by Art Whistler, have indicated that all these subspecies should be regarded as species in their own right.

External links

• New Zealand Plant Conservation Network, URL: Melicytus ramiflorus, accessed 03 October 2010.