The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network

Species

Dracophyllum oliveri

Etymology

Dracophyllum: dragon leaf, from its likeness to the dragon tree of the Canary Islands

Current Conservation Status

2012 - Not Threatened

Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012
The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2012 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS). This report includes a statistical summary and brief notes on changes since 2009 and replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Authors: Peter J. de Lange, Jeremy R. Rolfe, Paul D. Champion, Shannel P. Courtney, Peter B. Heenan, John W. Barkla, Ewen K. Cameron, David A. Norton and Rodney A. Hitchmough. File size: 792KB

Previous Conservation Status

2009 - Not Threatened
2004 - Not Threatened

Authority

Dracophyllum oliveri Du Rietz

Family

Ericaceae

Brief Description

Erect grassy shrub with many erect twigs bearing long very narrow pointed leaves inhabiting the western South Island. Leaves 5-7.5cm long by 1.5-2mm wide, abruptly widening to a sheath that encloses the stem which has a finely hairy margin (lens needed). Flowers in small spike at tip of short branches.

Flora Category

Vascular - Native

NVS Species Code

DRAOLI

Structural Class

Dicotyledonous Trees & Shrubs

Distribution

Endemic. New Zealand: South Island (mostly westerly though extending east into Southland in the southern part of its range)

Habitat

Dracophyllum oliveri is a species of open montane forest, woodland, shrubland or tussock grassland occurring on mountain slopes, gullies, plateaus and swampy depressions within an altitudinal range of 157–1,160 m. In the northern part of its range it is mostly found in dry wooded habitats but in the southern part of its range if virtually confined to bogs.

Features

Erect to spreading single–stemmed small tree, 1–4 m tall. Bark on old branches dark grey to dark brown, finely fissured, young stems reddish brown. Leaves dimorphic. Juvenile leaves spirally arranged, spreading to recurved; lamina sheath 6.0–9.0 × 3.0–3.5 mm, yellowish to light green; shoulders rounded to truncate and margin ciliate in upper half; lamina linear–triangular, 75–85 × 1.3–1.5 mm; surfaces glabrous, margins serrulate with 60–80 teeth per 10 mm. Adult leaves crowded at tips of branches, spreading; lamina sheath 3.5–9.0 × 3.0–5.0 mm, membranous; shoulders rounded to auricled, margin ciliate or only the top half ciliate; lamina 30–75 × 0.6–2.0 mm, linear to linear–triangular; margins serrulate with 50–100 teeth per 10 mm; apex triquetrous and acute. Inflorescence a terminal raceme on lateral branchlets, shorter than leaves, erect, drooping later, dense, 17–24 mm long, oblong; inflorescence bract over-topping flowers, 0.6–20.0 × 0.8–1.2 mm, ovate–lanceolate; margins serrulate. Flowers 5–10, pedicellate; flower bract over-topping flowers, 3.0–5.5 × 2.0–3.5 mm, broadly ovate, with a tuft of scabrid hairs at base of adaxial surface; margins ciliate; pedicels straight, 0.3–0.5 mm. Sepals 3.0–6.0 × 1.3–5.5 mm, ovate to triangular, equaling corolla tube, adaxial surface with the top half pubescent; margins ciliate. Corolla white turning light yellow with age; corolla tube 3.0–6.0 × 2.0–2.5 mm, funnelform; corolla lobes spreading horizontally to reflexed, 1.5–2.0 × 1.5–2.0 mm, broadly triangular, shorter than corolla tube; apex inflexed, acute; adaxial surface papillate. Stamens inserted on corolla tube in upper third; filaments 0.5–0.7 mm long; anthers included, 0.6–0.8 mm long, oblong, light yellow. Ovary 1.4–1.5 × 1.3–1.5 mm, ovate, apex round; nectary scales rectangular, 1.0–1.3(–1.5) × 0.6–0.8 mm; apices retuse; style included, 1.3–1.7 mm long, glabrous; stigma five–lobed. Fruit 1.0–1.5 × 1.0–1.3 mm, obovoid, light to dark brown, apex round and glabrous. Seed 0.95–1.2 mm long, filiform, yellowish brown, with a slightly reticulated testa.

Similar Taxa

Dracophyllum oliveri is recognised by the leaves which have 60–80 teeth per 10 mm on the lamina margin; by the clustered 5–10–flowered racemes borne on short lateral branches; by the 5–6 mm long sepals that are longer than the corolla tube and which have light coloured margins. Dracophyllum oliveri is most similar to D. filifolium from which it differs in the leaf, inflorescence and flower characters given above.

Flowering

November – March

Fruiting

January - June

Propagation Technique

Difficult - should not be removed from the wild

Threats

Not Threatened

Endemic Taxon

Yes

Endemic Genus

No

Endemic Family

No

Life Cycle and Dispersal

Minute seeds are wind dispersed (Thorsen et al., 2009).

This page last updated on 27 May 2016