An evergreen shrub 6 to 8 ft high; young shoots slender and covered with a close, greyish-white felt which persists the second year. Leaves linear-lanceolate, tapering usually to a long, finely pointed apex, more abruptly tapered at the base; 11⁄2 to 5 in. long, 3⁄16 to 5⁄8 in. wide; dark shining green and ultimately glabrous above, clothed beneath with a silvery white felt similar to that on the young shoots; stalk 1⁄8 to 1⁄4 in. long. Flowers 1⁄2 in. wide, star-like in shape, produced during May on panicles 1 to 2 in. long that terminate short lateral shoots. Petals five, bright yellow, downy outside, nearly 1⁄4 in. long, 1⁄16 in. wide, pointed; calyx small, top-shaped at the base with five pointed lobes, green covered with white down; stamens yellow. Each petal has a fringed appendage at the base. Fruit globose, blackish red, 1⁄3 in. wide, covering the stone thinly. Bot. Mag., t. 9019.
Native of the North Island of New Zealand; discovered by Allan Cunningham on the shore of the Bay of Islands in 1826. This species is very distinct amongst the corokias by reason of its slender, willow-like leaves and terminal panicles of flowers. Coming from the northern part of New Zealand, it is not so hardy as the better known C. cotoneaster. Still it succeeds in the warmer parts of the south and south-west.