Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Mt. Egmont. Type: W, 5365, L. Cockayne No. 8162, subalpine scrub, 18 March 1916; isotypes in CM.

Compact round-headed shrub to 2-3 m. tall, with stout branchlets and us. short internodes. Lvs c. 6-7 cm. × 8-10 mm., linear-lanceolate, tapering evenly from below middle to narrow tip, firm-textured and smooth but hardly shining. Bracts and calyx-lobes ciliolate only. Capsule glab., erect to spreading.

DIST.: N. Mt. Egmont and possibly extending to mountains from Raukumara to Ruahine Ranges.

Cockayne (Veg. N.Z. ed. 2, 1928, 440) lists H. salicifolia var. egmontiana (Ckn.) Ckn. et Allan but the var. was not in fact published. Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 790) lists Cockayne's "ined." name under var. paludosa. The Mt. Egmont plant differs from var. paludosa and from H. salicifolia sens. strict. in lacking the sinus in the lf-bud, as well as in shape and texture of lvs and in details of fr. Relationships of this to narrow-lvd forms of subalpine scrub on other North Id mountains need investigation. The compact habit is characteristic and is retained in cultivation.