Species

Convolvulus fractosaxosa

Etymology

Convolvulus: From Latin convolvere, which means to twine around
fractosaxosa: From the Latin fractos 'broken' and saxum 'rock', meaning found on broken rocks.

Common Name(s)

Shingle convolvulus

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 - Sparse

Qualifiers

2012 - Sp

Authority

Convolvulus fractosaxosa Petrie

Family

Convolvulaceae

Flora Category

Vascular - Native

NVS Species Code

CONFRA

The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.

Structural Class

Dicotyledonous Lianes and Related Trailing Plants

Synonyms

None

Distribution

Endemic. Eastern South Island from Marlborough (upper Awatere) south to Central Otago (Kawerau Gorge)

Habitat

Montane in dry open, short-tussock grassland usually in or near rock outcrops, also on semi-stable scree and outcrops at the head of screes.

Features

Rhizomatous, shortly creeping to lianoid, perennial herb arising from stout, fleshy, root stock. Stems slender up to 300 mm long. Petioles slender, 10-25 mm long, silky hairy. Leaves heterophyllous, 5-50 x 1-10 mm, green, yellow-green, grey-green, to silvery-grey; densely to sparsely silky hairy, deltoid, deltoid-ovate,broad-oblong, oblong to hastate some at least with filiform or linear terminal lobe and smaller basal lobes. Flowers axillary, solitary, peduncles filiform. Bracts paired, narrow linear. Sepals unequal, 5-7 mm, broad-ovate, covered with appressed hairs, apex obtuse. Corolla white or pink, 20 x 20 mm, when open, mid-petalline band pink. Capsule 7 mm diam., globose. Seeds black finely reticulate, reticulation made of short, narrow ridges.

Similar Taxa

Convolvulus verecundus Allan and C. waitaha (Sykes) Heenan, Molloy et de Lange, from which C. fractosaxosa differs by its lianoid stems being up to 300 mm long, and by its heterophyllous foliage, with at least some lamina possessing a filiform or linear terminal lobes and smaller basal lobes.

Flowering

November - February

Flower Colours

Red / Pink,White

Fruiting

January - March

Propagation Technique

Has not been successfully cultivated.

Threats

As far as is known not threatened but not common either. It appears to be a naturally uncommon, biologically sparse species.

Endemic Taxon

Yes

Endemic Genus

No

Endemic Family

No

Life Cycle and Dispersal

Seeds are wind dispersed (Thorsen et al., 2009).

  

References and further reading

Thorsen, M. J.; Dickinson, K. J. M.; Seddon, P. J. 2009. Seed dispersal systems in the New Zealand flora. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 11: 285-309

This page last updated on 22 Jun 2014