Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Coprosma repens

Male flowers. Photographer Avenue, New Zealand

Flowering stems with female flowers. Photographer Don Wood, Wallaga Lake north of Bermagui

Fruiting stem. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer G McEwin, Adelaide Hills, SA

Shrub. Photographer John Tann, south of Kiama

Common name

Taupata, New Zealand Laurel, Mirror Bush

Family

Rubiaceae

Where found

Forest, shrubland, coastal headlands, and beaches. Coastal.

Notes

Introduced tree to prostrate shrub to 8 m high. Fruit fleshy. Branches stout, hairless to hairy. Leaves opposite each other, 2–8 cm long, 10–50 mm wide, shining, hairless, domatia prominent on the lower surface, tips blunt, squared off, or notched. Male and female flowers on different plants. Male flowers about 5 mm long, funnel-shaped, with 4-6 lobes lobes about the same length as the tube. Female flowers about 3 mm long, tubular, the lobes shorter than the tube. Male flowers in dense clusters; female flowers usually in 3-flowered clusters. Flowering: spring–summer. Fruit orange-red, about 6-10 mm in diameter, oval to almost round. 

General Biosecurity Duty all NSW.

PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Coprosma~repens (accessed 7 January, 2021)