The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network

I have just been looking around the shoreline of Lake Hawea as part of a site visit, and saw Leucopogon fraseri growing with a turfy Coprosma. My experience is mostly with seeing C. petriei in the wild. Old DoC records describe C. perpusilla as being present at Hawea. What are the major features that distinguish these species ? I had always assumed that C. perpusilla was slightly bulkier in all its parts.

The turfy Coprosmas can be a bit challenging at times. Coprosma petriei can be distinguished from Coprosma perpusilla by having small hairs on the surface of its leaves and pale blue berries. Coprosma atropurpurea has similar hairs on the surface of the leaves but wine-coloured berries. Coprosma perpusilla has orange berries and can be distinguished from Coprosma niphophila which also has orange berries by the flowers having (3)- 4 styles corresponding to the same number of seeds in the fruit. Coprosma niphophila and the other turfy Coprosma species have flowers with two styles. I have attached a photo of C. petriei to show these features.

Thanks David, that's a very good answer for what I was asking.

Did you try the online Lucid Coprosma Key. It has excellent photographs and a good diagnostic key. You will have to use a browser like Firefox and have the very latest Java version loaded on your system

Does this help - C. petriei at Hakatere

Thanks Pat and Graeme, those are both useful. I will try the Coprosma Key after I update Java (which didn't want to play ball with my slightly older Mac OS). We certainly were looking at C. petriei at the Crown Range (as it was in fruit). The Coprosma on the Hawea shoreline seems glabrous on the leaf, but I don't have a hand lens on me, and there are none in fruit. I'll wait to see it in fruit when I come back down for more work later on in the year.

Philip I have recorded C. petriei from the Lake Hawea terminal moraine - see http://naturewatch.org.nz/observations/5577103

Thanks John,
That's brilliant to know. In the absence of fruit (and I couldn't discern small hairs on the leaves from my macro shots), I had gone with the previous records of Coprosma perpusilla on that. I've propagated it from plants growing in our clients' lawn (along with Luzula rufa, Leucopogon fraseri and Carex breviculmis), and it will play a significant role in the garden (hence wanting to discern which species it is).