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A NOTE ON TH ETAXONOMY OF AVICENNIA IN
NEW ZEALAND
by Prudence A . Ly nch . *
The occurrence ofAvicennia in New Zealand is first recorded in
the botanical
literature by George Forster in his "D e Plantis Esculentis
Insularum Aust ra li um
Prodromus" (1786). Forster gave the New Zealand species the name
of
Avicennia resinifera, in the mistaken belief that the mangroves
produced a
resinous substance. Since Forster di d not visit the Nor th
Island, he cannot have
collected Avicennia himself, and his description must have been
based on
specimens collected by earlier botanists, probably those of
Banks and Solander
(L .B. Moor e, quoted in Molde nke, I96 0).
In 1839-41 Dr Ernest Dieffenbach visited New Zealand and made
the first
collection of plants from the Chatham Islands, recording
Avicennia amongst
these. Muel ler (1864) includes the mangrove among the species
of the Chathams,
naming it Avicennia officinalis L . on the authority o f Sir J.
D. Hooker . He notes,
however, that the flowerless Eurybia traversii "bears
considerable resemblance to
Avicennia officinalis." Hooker himself (1864) names the New
Zealand mangrove
as Avicennia officinalis L .
Kirk (1889) gives a description of the New Zealand Avicennia
officinalis L .
together with a figure. He gives the synonyms of A. tomentosa
Jacq. and A.
resinifera Forst. and states the occurrence as "from North Cape
to Kawhia
Harbour on the west coast, and northern part of Tauranga Harbour
on the east
coast." Cheeseman (1906) also gives the name Avicennia
officinalis L . However,
he corrects the erroneous Chatham Islands local ity, stating
that Dieffenbach
probably mistook flowerless specimens ofOlearia traversii Hook.
{Eurybia
traversii Muell.)
A revision of the genus by Bakhuizen van den Brink appeared in
1921, in
which he referred the New Zealand plant to A. marina (Forsk.)
Vierh . , giving it
the status of a variety, A. marina var. resinifera. However,
Cockayne
(1921,1928) and Baylis (1935 ,1940 ,1950 ) retain the name A.
officinalis L . ,
while Allan (1961) describes the New Zealand species as endemic
and gives it
back the originalname ofA resinifera Forst.Chapman (in Chapman
and Ronaldson , 1958) writes "I n New Zealand . . .
there is only one species, Avicennia marina (Forsk.) Vierh . The
[taxonomic]
problem is essentially e c o l o g i c a l . . . A marina is a
truly widespread species
which forms an ecocline with characters that grade with changes
of bo th latitude
and longitude."
The most recent revision of the genus is that by Moldenke
(1960,
1967 ,1968), who follows Bakhu ize n in giving the Ne w Zealand
plant varietal
status as A. marina var. resinifera. Moldenke (1960) recognises
eleven living
species and four fossil species of Avicennia, compared with the
four species (all
living) described by Bakhuizen in 1921. Further, he places the
genus Avicenniaapart from the Verbenaceae in the separate family
Avicenniaceae, as was first
proposed by Endl icher (1838) and followed by other writers,
including Allan
(1961) (Chapman, in press).
Department of Botany, University ofAuckland.
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The characters by which Avicennia officinalis is separated from
A. marina
include those of leaf shape and flower morphology. In A.
officinalis the leaves
are obovate or broadly oblong; in A. marina var. resinifera the
leaves are broadly
lanceolate or ellipt ic-oblong (Chapman, in press). In A.
officinalis the ovary is
entirely covered by long silky hairs with a shaggy style and
bifid, tapering
stigma, much shorter than the style, whereas in A. marina the
ovary is glabrous atthe base with the upper half quickly becoming
covered by silky hairs. The
equally obtusely bifid stigma is equal to or longer than the
hairless style
(Bakhuizen, 1921).
On the basis of these characters the New Zealand mangrove
clearly belongs to
Avicennia marinaand its valid name is A. marina (Forsk.) Vierh.
var. resinifera
(Forst.) Bakh. The variety occurs also in Victor ia , New South
Wales, and
Queensland; i n New Guinea and New Caledonia ; and in the Phil
ippines
(Bakhuizen, 1921 ;Moldenke, 1960).
A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S
I would like to thank Professor V . J . Chapman for permission
to read part of
the manuscript of his forthcoming book on mangroves and for
helpful advice;
Professor L .H . Millener for his assistance; and Miss M . E .
Lloyd for translating the
Latin diagnoses and key from Bakhuizen.
REFERENCES
Allan, H.H. 1961: "The flora of New Zealand." Vol. I.
Wellington.
Bakhuizen van den Brink, R.C. 1921: Revisio Generis Avieenniae.
Bull. Jard. Bot. Buienz.
Serie 3, Vol. 3:199-226.
Baylis, G.T.S. 1935: Some observations on Avicennia officinalis
L. in New Zealand.
Unpublished M.Sc. thesis, University ofAuckland.
Baylis, G.T.S. 1940: Leaf anatomy of the New Zealand mangrove.
Trans. Roy. Soc. N.Z.
70: 164-70.
Baylis, G.T.S. 1950: Root system of the New Zealand mangrove.
Ibid. 78: 509-14.
Chapman, V.J. 1972: "Mangrove vegetation." (In press)
Chapman, V.J . ; Ronaldson, J.W. 1958: The m a n g T o v e and
salt marsh flats of the AucklandDistrict. N.Z. D.S.I.R. Bull.
125.
Cheeseman, T.F. 1906: "Manual of the New Zealand flora".
Wellington.
Cockayne, L. 1921: The vegetation of the New Zealand-Die
vegetation der Erde. XIV.
Leipzig. Ed. 2. 1928.
Hooker, J.D. 1864: "Handbook of the New Zealand flora."
London.
Kirk, T. 1889: "The forest flora of New Zealand."
Wellington.
Moldenke, H.N. 1960: Materials towards a monograph of the
genusAvicennia. I, II, and
Ul. Phytologia 7: 123-68; 179-232; 259-93.
Moldenke, H. N. 1967: Additional notes on the genus Avicennia. I
and II Phytologia 14:
301-20; 326-36. III. Phytologia 15: 71-2.
Moldenke, H.N. 1968: Additional notes on the genus Avicennia.
IV. Phytologia 15: 470-8.
Mueller, F. 1864: "The vegetation o f the Chatham Islands."
Melbourne.
