Flora of New Zealand Series

stiff bottlebrush

Shrub to c. 2 m high, with spreading habit and angular shoots. Young shoots and lvs densely clothed in silky hairs, pinkish brown, becoming glabrous. Lvs sessile, 5-11 cm × c. 4 mm, narrow-linear, rigid, green and strongly coriaceous at maturity, aromatic when bruised, glandular-punctate below; midrib prominent and lateral; veins forming thickened margins; apex pungent-acute. Infl. densely hairy at first, becoming glabrous, 6-9 cm long. Sepals c. 2 mm long, ± broad-ovate, pinkish. Petals c. 5 mm diam., green, ± hairy outside. Stamens 2-3 cm long; filaments deep crimson, occasionally paler; anthers c. 1-1.5 mm long, dark reddish. Style slightly < stamens, deep crimson. Fruiting receptacle c. 5 mm diam., with capsule deeply sunken inside.

N.: Karikari Peninsula (N. Auckland), Auckland City.

N.S.W. 1982

Coastal sandy soil in open gumland scrub, locally abundant.

FL Oct-Feb.

Stiff bottlebrush is illustrated in Fig. 86. It is cultivated in many parts of N.Z. C. linearis DC. and C. linearifolius (Link) DC. are similar and closely related to C. rigidus and have sometimes been confused with it. Another sp., C. citrinus (Curtis) Stapf, is abundantly cultivated in N.Z. and has been reported wild in the Hokianga area of N. Auckland (R. H. Michie, pers. comm.), but the record is not substantiated by specimens. This sp. is easily distinguished from C. rigidus by its narrow-elliptic lvs, 1-2 cm wide, which are lemon-scented when crushed.

Fig. 86. Myrtaceae. A Callistemon rigidus, fl.; B Leptospermum laevigatum, fr.; C L. scoparium, fr.; D Ugni molinae, fr. © All rights reserved. [Image: 4X6E]