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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.