Flora of New Zealand Series

Erect or rather spreading shrub, usually 0.5-2 m high; branchlets densely to rather sparsely setose, often puberulent also. Lvs alternate; petioles slender, to c. 2 mm long. Lamina (5)-7-10-(20) × (3)-6-10- (20) mm, broadly elliptic-oblong or elliptic to orbicular, coriaceous, glabrous or nearly so; margins ± undulate, crenulate-denticulate to serrate; base cuneate to rounded; apex rounded, mucronulate, sometimes ± acute. Fls solitary, axillary, but uppermost lvs sometimes so reduced that fls appear racemosely arranged; pedicels glabrate to densely hairy; bracteoles 0.7-1.5 mm long, broadly ovate. Calyx lobes 1.5-2.5 mm long, ovate-triangular, subacute to acute. Corolla ± urceolate; tube 1.5-2.5 mm long; lobes triangular. Fr. 4-6 mm diam.; calyx ± fleshy, white to red or purplish.

N.; S.; St.

Endemic.

Lowland to montane shrubland and forest, open and rocky places.

FL Nov-Feb.

This variable and widespread sp. hybridises with almost all other indigenous Gaultheria and Pernettya spp. (Franklin, D. A., Trans. Roy. Soc. N.Z. (Bot) 1: 164 (1962)).