The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network

Hi any help with the Id of this bush would be greatly appreciated.
It grows in my mid Pelorous sounds location.
Photo shows bush at early start of summer.
Sorry can not provide a in situ picture, only have laptop camera.

This fluffy leafed bushy plant grows a lot around cleared areas here,
I do not see it in the regenerated forest areas.
In the cleared area it comes up quite regularly and here I see it can grow to a height of at least 2 metres, with a 25 mm tree like wooden trunk.
This bush develops a few vertical growing woody branches from low down on its main trunk,
with quite dense foliage on all limbs at all heights.
The foliage is very soft little needle type leaves, which have no noticeable smell when crushed.

Again all help with this plant ID appreciated.

HI that looks a bit like tauhinu, which only grows in open areas and doesn't usually occur in forest
http://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora_details.aspx?ID=1081

Looks like spanish heath Erica lusitanica

HI Mike, I though Spanish heath to start with, but given the location in Marlborough tauhinu is quite prominent there too. Peter if you could check out both options and let us know ? :-)

leaves way too narrow to be tauhinu to me, Spanish heath would have been my guess also. Peter, is any of it flowering? A photo of the flower (in focus please) will help a lot.

(from poster of original query)Thank you all for your replies, I had replied much earlier, but my comments failed to properly
submit, and so I am trying a different web browser, as I only have dial up internet connection here.

I feel the plant I have here does not look like the ones in
the pictures I have seen for tauhinu.
The plant I have here, I would describe as having much finer leaves.
The fine needle like leaves are very very soft, like down feathers.

I should have detailed about the flowers, sorry about that,
I am just opening into plant identifying like this.
The plant I have posted on, does not flower in clusters, but the flowers are spread out through the
fine branches.
The plant I have here, recently flowered, maybe a month or two ago.

I have attached a picture showing the dried remains from when it flowered,
I am very limited at this time with picture taking, as I only have the laptop camera available.

From the pictures I have seen of Erica lusitanica

(continuedmy first impression is that the plant I have here, has finer leaves than of Erica lusitanica,
although I realise there can be genetic variations
and also that at times pictures do not always give the clearest ID of fine details.

Also what is missing in the written info on Erica lusitanica
that would help me confirm if the shrub I have here is Erica lusitanica,
is there is no mention of the softness of the leaves.

The leaves of the plant I have here, are so so soft, very soft like the fine down of a bird,
to me this is a very noticeable trait of this shrub.

Reading from the written info on Erica lusitanica at:
http://keyserver.lucidcentral.org/weeds/data/03030800-0b07-490a-8d04-0605030c0f01/media/Html/Erica_lusitanica.htm

"Stems and Leaves
The older woody stems are brown in colour and can grow up to 15 cm thick at the base of the plant. The younger stems are slender, green in colour, and covered in hairs (i.e. pubescent).
The tiny leaves (3-7 mm long and ab

(cont'd)out 0.5 mm wide) and crowded together in groups of three or four along the stems (i.e. they appear to be whorled). They are narrow (i.e. linear) or elongated in shape, mostly hairless (i.e. glabrous), and either stalkless or very shortly-stalked (i.e. sessile or sub-sessile). These leaves have entire margins that are rolled downwards (i.e. recurved), producing a lengthwise (i.e. longitudinal) groove on the lower surface."

The points I note in the shrub I have here, in relation to the above description for Erica lusitanica are:
(a) Younger stems
The younger stems are a very very pale light green, in some places almost going to white,
and they are covered in very fine hairs.

(b) Leaves
The leaves are single, not opposing, and coming off the fine little branches from all the way around,
and so do somewhat appear to be whorled.

To me the leaves are so fine, that with just my eyesight, I would say, they have no leaf stalk,
and they are so fine that that with just my

(cont'd)eyesight, I would say, they have no leaf stalk,
and they are so fine that that with just my eyesight, I can not say that the leaves have entire margins that are rolled downwards, producing a longitudinal groove on the lower surface,
perhaps on mature leaves, with just my eyes, I could just notice a longitudinal groove on the lower surface.

I live way out past road access here, so can not quickly get a magnifying glass.

So in conclusion, the written info on Erica lusitanica, does seem to match the shrub I have here,
except there is no mention of the down like softness of the leaves.

Can anyone please confirm if Erica lusitanica has very soft down like leaves ?

Again all help with this plant ID appreciated.

Hi Matt. Pomaderris??