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Alseuosmia pusilla
Alseuosmia pusilla, the mountain alseuosmia, is a species of flowering plant, endemic to New Zealand.
From the article Alseuosmia pusilla on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
This plant is a small shrub, with glossy green leaves that can have a red margin. It rarely has a single or two branches, and grows up to 50cm. It has a red fruit. The flowers are white or green with five lobes, and smell sweet.
Range & habitat
Alseuosmia pusilla is found in the North Island to the south of Te Moehau and Mt Pirongia, and in the northwest corner of the South Island. It lives in montane habitats. It can grow up to 950m in elevation, and is generally found in beech or podocarp forests.
Wikipedia: “Range and habitat”
What it does
The leaf shape of this plant may be a Batesian mimic of the toxic plant Pseudowintera colorata, meaning that it has evolved a leaf shape that is similar as a way to defend itself from herbivory. This currently functions as a defense against introduced mammalian herbivores in New Zealand, but it also may prehistorically have functioned as a defense against moa.
== References ==
Wikipedia: “Ecology”
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Alseuosmia pusilla in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 366638.