''Pittosporum divaricatum'' is a species of

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclu ...

in the

Pittosporaceae Pittosporaceae is a family of flowering plants that consists of 200–240 species of trees, shrubs, and lianas in 9 genera. Habitats range from tropical to temperate climates of the Afrotropical, Indomalayan, Oceanian, and Australasian realms. T ...

family. It is a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

shrub growing up to 3 metres high. It has densely entangled branches growing in a divaricating form typical of many New Zealand small leaved shrubs. It exhibits a form of dimorphism with leaves differing in form between the juvenile and adult stages and in the adult leaves where two distinct forms are found. The juvenile leaves are narrowly lanceolate to obovate with margins pinnatifid to dentate. The adult leaves exist in two forms, either entire, or almost so, or deeply lobed or toothed. The flowers are borne singly on the end of shoots. The petal are up to 5mm long and very dark red, often appearing black, subtended by sepals which are 2mm long. The fruits contain between 2 and 6 seeds.

References

Flora of New Zealand divaricatum Divaricating plants {{NewZealand-plant-stub