Coprosma repens is a shrub or small tree that is native to New Zealand. This shiny-leaved coprosma forms a low forest around the exposed coasts of the North Island and the northern tip of the South Island, Kermadec Islands and the Three Kings Islands.

It is a remarkably resilient plant, with an ability to adapt to a variety of situations – a small, stunted, often prostrate shrub or bizarrely contorted tree growing on or among rocks apparently devoid of soil in exposed coastal situations, or a tree six metres or more high with its dazzling bright-green foliage reflecting the sunlight in a protected situation with rich soil.
Flowers are produced in spring and summer, the male flowers appearing in dense, compound clusters, the female flowers in smaller clusters. Female plants produce orange-red ovoid drupes which are around 8 mm in diameter and 10 mm in length.