Flora of New Zealand Series

needlebush

Large spreading shrub or small tree. Shoots densely hairy, somewhat angular. Lvs terete, simple, 20-60 × 0.7-1 mm, glabrous except when very young, rigid and spiny. Fls few, in fascicles of < 10; peduncles 0 or very short, densely hairy. Pedicels 3-4 mm long, densely hairy to glabrate. Perianth white, glabrous, = pedicels. Ovary shortly stipitate or sessile; style glabrous; stigma cone slightly oblique. Fr. 2-3 × 1.4-2.5 cm, mostly very corrugated; beak very short. Seed 15-25 × 6-12 mm (including wing), black; wing extending down 1 side.

N.: common to abundant in N. Auckland, also in the Auckland region, Great Barrier Id, Waikato, Coromandel Peninsula, Bay of Plenty, and Wellington area; S.: Rai and Waikakaho valleys (Marlborough), and locally common in N.W. Nelson.

E. Australia, Tasmania 1883

Gumlands, scrub, open hillsides.

FL Jun-Nov.

Because of the density of growth of H. sericea and the rapidity of its spread on scrub-covered hillsides, particularly in Leptospermum scoparium communities, it is a serious weed. It is the commonest naturalised sp. of the genus in N.Z., and was presumably originally introduced for hedging, although it is now rarely used. Certain specimens (e.g., CHR 70931, between Waipu Cove and Hakura, N. Auckland, Healy, 28.5.1950) have lvs 1.5-1.8 mm thick and pedicels < perianth. Such stout lvs and short pedicels are more like those of the related H. propinqua Cunn., but in respect to perianth length and most other characters these specimens are more in agreement with H. sericea. Needlebush or prickly hakea has been known previously in N.Z. as H. acicularis.