Species

Rhamnus alaternus

Common Name(s)

Italian evergreen buckthorn

Family

Rhamnaceae

Flora Category

Vascular - Exotic

NVS Species Code

RHAALA

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 Trees & Shrubs

Habitat

Terrestrial. A plant of coastal and lowland habitats, grows in sites with low - low/moderate fertility. Invades scrub, forest margin, tall forest, low forest, shrubland, fernland, cliff and bare rock and river verge communities.

Features

Evergreen shrub to approx. 5m high, often < 1m in exposed sites. Shoots angular, hairy, usually purple when young. Stipules subulate. Petiole 3-11mm long, hairy, at least on upper side. The leaves are leathery, often toothed glossy and oval to about 6cm long. The flowers are small, green and fragrant. The berry is up to 7mm long, broad, ovoid, glossy red becoming black with a stone.

Similar Taxa

May be confused with Melicytus novae-zealandae (endemic) in Northern Coastal areas. The purplish stems and fruits of Rhamnus alaternus are quite distinctive. Rhamnus cathartica is also cultivated in NZ, but is not known from the wild. R. cathartica has more ovate leaves than R. alaternus.

Flowering

May, June, July, August, September, October, November

Flower Colours

Green

Year Naturalised

1940

Origin

Mediterranean

Reason for Introduction

Ornamental

Life Cycle and Dispersal

Perennial. Can spread vegetatively underground and by seed. Seed is produced at the rate of 3 seeds/fruit and 10 000 plus fruit per 8m tall individual (Timmins & MacKenzie 1995). Seed is thought to remain viable in the seed bank for three years (Wotherspoon 1996). The seed is dispersed by birds.

Tolerances

Highly tolerant of drought, shade and frost and tolerant to poor drainage. Physical damage, grazing and fire results in resprouting of the plant. After fire large leafy watershoots are produced from the base of the tree. Requires low to medium soil fertility.

This page last updated on 15 Aug 2014