Phormium colensoi
species of plant
Phormium colensoi (syn. Phormium cookianum – see below), also called mountain flax, or wharariki in Māori, is a perennial plant that is endemic to New Zealand. The greenish, yellow or orange flowers are followed by twisted seed pods. It is less common than the other Phormium species, P. tenax or harakeke. Mountain flax is also known as whararipi, whatariki, mangaeka, kōrari tuauru (Williams 1971), wauraki (Bell 1890 sic.), coastal flax, hill flax and lesser New Zealand flax.
Description
The leaves are under 2 metres in length while those of P. tenax range from 1 to 3 metres in length. The scape is much shorter than that of P. tenax, rising up to 2 metres in height while that of P. tenax is around 5 metres in height. The colour of the inner tepals is green while the outer tepals are yellow to red. In contrast the tepals of P. tenax are a dull red, with the tips of the inner tepals being less strongly recurved. The capsules of P. colensoi, unlike those of P. tenax are twisted and pendulous, and may be twice as long (up to 20 cm in length).
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Phormium colensoi” is species of plant. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Phormium, colensoi and species, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “species of plant” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7187392. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1971 and 1890.
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This entry incorporates text from “Phormium colensoi” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.