Flora of New Zealand Series

St Daboec's heath

Small mat-forming shrub to c. 30 cm high. Shoots with long, glandular hairs and short, eglandular, crisped hairs. Petiole c. 1 mm long. Lamina 5-12 × 1.5-4 mm, lanceolate to narrowly ovate-oblong, sparsely hairy above, with white felty indumentum below but partly obscured by revolute margin; base narrowly cuneate; apex mucronate. Racemes loose, to c. 10 cm long; rachis and pedicels with glandular hairs. Bracts leaflike, mostly 3-6 mm long, linear to narrow-lanceolate, sparsely hairy above, with white felty indumentum below. Fls pendent. Calyx c. 3 mm long; lobes triangular-ovate, densely covered in glandular hairs, often purplish. Corolla c. 1 cm long, purplish or magenta, with sparse glandular hairs outside. Anthers c. 5 mm long, linear, > filaments. Style ± or > stamens.

N.: known from only one collection, Matariki Bridge, Taupo Road north of Tongariro National Park; S.: Otago.

W. Europe 1981

Burned scrubland.

FL Nov-Apr.

Both purple- to magenta-flowered and white-flowered forms of this sp. are common in cultivation. It is often known as D. polifolia.