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white climbing rātā
Metrosideros diffusa
Metrosideros diffusa, the white rātā, climbing rātā or in Māori akakura, is a forest liane or vine endemic to New Zealand. It is one of a number of New Zealand Metrosideros species which live out their lives as vines, unlike the northern rātā (M.robusta), which generally begins as a hemi-epiphyte and grows into a huge tree. It is one of three white flowering rātā vines (the others being large white rātā and small white rātā). White rātā is the most common climbing rātā in the wild, found naturally in lowland forests throughout the North, South and Stewart islands.
From the article Metrosideros diffusa on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
Metrosideros diffusa climbs to 6 metres (20 feet) tall and has small shiny leaves up to 2 cm (0.79 in) or more. The leaves are mostly rounded at the tip. Flowering is from mid-spring to early summer, with white or pale pink flowers.
How it is grown
Metrosideros diffusa is not widely grown in cultivation, but is available from specialist native plant nurseries within New Zealand. In addition there is one known cultivar, Metrosideros diffusa 'Crystal Showers' sold by Blue Mountain Nurseries in Tapanui. This is a slow growing groundcover with white flowers but cream and green variegated foliage.
Wikipedia: “Cultivation”
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 Metrosideros diffusa 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 366729.