Flora of New Zealand Series

Leucopogon colensoi Hook. f. Fl. N.Z. 1, 1854, 165.

Type locality: eastern base of Mount Tongariro. Type: K, Colenso 948; fr. white, good flowering and fruiting branches.

Rather stout prostrate to decumbent shrub forming dense to rather lax patches up to c. 2 m. diam., branchlets erect to ascending. Lvs sessile or subsessile, glab., erect or ascending, becoming patent, glaucous below, with 5-3 distinct nerves below, 5-9 × 1-2-(3) mm., narrow-oblong, concavo-convex; margins thickened, ± recurved, ciliolate; apex obtuse, us. apiculate to mucronulate. Infl. of (2)-3-5-fld short, stout, terminal racemes. Bracts 2-3, broad-ovate, c. 2.5 mm. long, obtuse, ciliolate. Fls up to c. 7 mm. long; calyx-lobes obtuse, ciliolate, c. 4 mm. long. elliptic-oblong; corolla-tube 4-5 mm. long hairy on upper part; corolla-lobes ± 3 mm. long, densely hairy on upper surface. Fr. white to pink to red to dark crimson, globose, 4-5 mm. diam.; locules 5.

DIST.: N., S. Montane to lower subalpine open grassland to rocky places and fellfield from lat. 38º 30' southwards, rather local in southern part of range.

FL. 12-1. FT. 1-4.