Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Mount Rochfort. Type: W, D. Petrie, 5/2/1913.

Erect, up to c. 2 m. tall; branches with blackish bark; branchlets slender, ascending, becoming nude below, bark greyish. Lvs narrow-subulate; sheaths 5-8 × (2)-3-4 mm., abruptly narrowed to truncate subauricled shoulder. Lamina minutely pubescent, becoming glab., rigid, 4-5-(7) cm. × 1·5-2 mm., tapering gradually to subpungent apex; margins minutely pubescent. Fls in erect, often clustered, 5-10-fld racemes on short lateral branches. Bracts caducous; lower lflike up to 25 mm. long, subpersistent; upper c. 5 × 3 mm., broad-ovate, suddenly narrowed to subulate blunt apex. Sepals persistent, c. 6 mm. long, ovate-acuminate. Corolla-tube 3-4 mm. long; lobes spreading, subacute, ± reflexed. Capsule c. 5 mm. diam.

DIST.: S. Montane to subalpine swampy and boggy ground and shrubland from c. lat. 41º to c. 45º 30'.

Oliver (loc. cit. 1952, 12) emphasizes the narrow lvs of juvenile plants as a character differentiating oliveri from longifolium. The two are very closely related. Even so, D. oliveri is polymorphic, as Oliver indicates: "The southern form, found near Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri, is smaller and the leaves are shorter, 30-50 mm. long, 2 mm. broad."