Flora of New Zealand Series

heather

Shrub to c. 50 cm tall; stems puberulent or densely hairy at first, becoming glabrous. Lvs 1.5-3.5 mm long (including auricles), oblong-ovate or oblong-lanceolate, densely imbricate on non-flowering branches, keeled on abaxial surface, often ciliate, obtuse; auricles proximally directed. Infl. a narrow raceme 2-9-(c. 20) cm long, sometimes almost paniculate. Pedicels very short, puberulent. Bracteoles several, similar to lvs, resembling a calyx below fl., obscuring pedicels. Sepals 2-4 mm long, ovate-oblong, pink or mauve-pink, shining, ± scarious. Corolla c. 3/4 length of calyx, deeply lobed, paler than calyx, persistent, scarious. Stamens c. = corolla; anthers > filaments. Style reddish, exserted. Capsules densely hairy, < perianth, subglobose. Seeds 0.5-0.7 mm long, strongly reticulate, often aborted.

N.: common in Tongariro National Park, and in Mt Egmont National Park and Te Aroha; S.: The Hermitage (Mt Cook), near Hokitika, Queenstown, Te Anau, and occasionally elsewhere; C.

Europe, Asia Minor, N. Africa 1910

Scrub and tussock grassland.

FL Dec-Mar.

Heather (ling to the English) has been cultivated since the early period of European settlement in N.Z. and is still grown throughout the country. It was deliberately introduced for naturalisation on the Volcanic Plateau and soon became wild there. There is some variability among naturalised plants, but the common white and double-flowered cvs often grown are apparently not wild. Much of its spread is by vegetative reproduction.