This species is based on several leaf fossils, all with triangular pinnate lobes cut all the way back to the midrib, and indistinct secondary venation.

[1] Fossil leaves were found at the Newvale Mine, Waimumu Coalfield, Southland District, South Island, New Zealand (46°8′33″S 168°45′6″E / 46.14250°S 168.75167°E / -46.14250; 168.75167), in a thin leaf litter bed located in a seam of the middle Gore Lignite Measures.

[1] The leaf litter bed in which B. novae-zelandiae was found is regarded as of late Oligocene to early Miocene origin (27 to 16 million years ago), and is thought to have accrued in swamps associated with a coastal delta.

The bed mainly contains species with sclerophyllous leaves, with no broad-leaved rainforest element in evidence, suggesting a heath-like environment.

It is harder to reconcile it with the recent claim that New Zealand was completely submerged in the late Oligocene, as this would require the unlikely (but possible) dispersal of seeds across thousands of kilometers of ocean.