Flora of New Zealand Series

Epacris longifolia J. R. et G. Forst. Char. Gen. Pl. 1776, 20, t. 10.

Epacris frondosa Gaertn. Fruct. 1, 1788, 77, t. 2.

Dracophyllum lyallii Hook. f. Fl. N.Z. 1, 1854, 169.

D. longifolium var: retortum Homb. et Jacq. in Voy. Pôle Sud 1853, 86.

Type locality: Dusky Sound? Type:?

Shrub or tree up to c. 12 m. tall with trunk up to 4 dm. diam., but us. smaller without distinct trunk. Branches and branchlets us. slender, erect or spreading. Lvs stiff, us. crowded towards tips of branchlets; sheath ± 15 × 10 mm., pale, passing by rounded to truncate, sts auricled shoulder into lamina ± 10-25 cm. × 3-5 mm., rigid, coriac., slightly rounded on dorsal surface, sts ± pubescent above, tapering to long acuminate apex; margins entire to minutely serrulate. Infl. of erect to drooping 6-15-fld racemes 4-5 cm. long, terminal on branchlets. Bracts caducous, lower long, lflike. Sepals persistent, ovate-lanceolate, acute, ciliate, c. = corolla-tube. Corolla subcampanulate, tube ± 5 mm. long, lobes ovate-triangular, inflexed at tips; anthers included or barely exserted. Capsule ± 4-5 mm. long.

DIST.: N., S., St., A., C. Coastal, lowland, montane to subalpine shrubland and forest, from near East Cape southwards. Inanga.

A polymorphic sp. still inadequately resolved. No type has as yet been selected. The Forsterian specimens I have seen are scrappy.