Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Asterales Link
Family
Compositae Giseke
Genus
Olearia Moench
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Olearia ilicifolia Hook.f., Handb. New Zealand Fl. 126 (1864)
Synonymy:
  • = Eurybia dentata var. linearifolia Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. II. (Fl. Nov.-Zel.) Part I, 118 (1853)
  • = Olearia multibracteolata Colenso, Trans. & Proc. New Zealand Inst. 17: 242 (1884 [1885])
Vernacular Name(s):
Hakeke; Hākēkeke; Kōtaratara; mountain holly
 Description

Shrub or tree up to 5 m. tall, with musky fragrance; branchlets rather stout, pubescent when young. Lvs 5–10 × 1–2 cm., on petioles up to 2 cm. long, linear-oblong to lanceolate, acute to acuminate, truncate at base, coriac., glab. above when mature, clad in thin appressed yellowish white tomentum below, margins strongly undulate, sharply serrate-dentate, teeth almost spinous; major lateral veins at very wide angle. Capitula ∞, small, on slender pedicels, in large corymbs; phyll. rather lax, spreading, outer villous on back, inner ciliate at tips; florets 10–15. Achenes c. 2 mm. long, linear-oblong, conspicuously ribbed, ribs with slender ascending hairs; pappus of cop. very slender white unequal hairs up to c. 4 mm. long.

[From: Allan (1961) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 1.]

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Phenology

Flowering: Nov.–Jan.; Fruiting: Dec.–Feb.

 Bibliography
Colenso, W. 1885 ("1884"): A description of some newly-discovered and rare indigenous plants; being a further contribution towards the making known the botany of New Zealand. Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 17: 237–265.
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Barkla J.W.; Courtney, S.P.; Champion, P.D.; Perrie, L.R.; Beadel, S.N.; Ford, K.A.; Breitwieser, I.; Schönberger, I.; Hindmarsh-Walls, R.; Heenan, P.B.; Ladley, K. 2018: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017. New Zealand Threat Classification Series. No. 22. [Not Threatened]
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Champion, P.D.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Norton, D.A.; Hitchmough, R.A. 2013: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012. New Zealand Threat Classification Series 3. Department of Conservation, Wellington. [Not Threatened]
Hooker, J.D. 1852–1853 ("1853"): The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror in the Years 1839–1843, under the command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross. II. Flora Novae-Zelandiae. Part I. Flowering plants. Lovell Reeve, London.
Hooker, J.D. 1864: Handbook of the New Zealand Flora: a systematic description of the native plants of New Zealand and the Chatham, Kermadec's, Lord Auckland's, Campbell's and Macquarie's Islands. Part I. Reeve, London.