Coprosma colensoi

Coprosma colensoi is a slender evergreen shrub of the family Rubiaceae, endemic to New Zealand, where it occurs in lowland to subalpine forest and shrubland from the central North Island southwards through the South Island and Stewart Island. It typically grows 1–3 m tall, with thin, wiry, divaricately branched stems that are pale brown to greyish and finely pubescent when young. The leaves are opposite, on slender petioles 1–4 mm long, with narrowly oblong to obovate or elliptic blades 8–25 mm long and 3–8 mm wide; they are thin, dark glossy green above and paler below, with entire margins and distinct interpetiolar stipules bearing a small denticle. The plant is dioecious; small, inconspicuous tubular flowers are borne singly or in small fascicles in the leaf axils, the males with exserted stamens and the females with two long, white styles. The fruit is a small, fleshy, ellipsoid to subglobose drupe 4–7 mm long, ripening translucent pale orange to red, containing two pyrenes. It is a characteristic understorey shrub of montane podocarp-broadleaf and beech forest.