Pimelea oreophila C.J.Burrows

A procumbent shrub, with few to many, slender to moderately thick (2–3.5 mm), flexible young stems. Older stems thicker (2.5–6 mm), up to 50 cm long, occasionally with adventitious roots, sometimes climbing in upright shrubs. Reduced in stature on exposed sites with rocky substrates, sometimes forming short-stemmed, appressed rosettes. Branching mainly sympodial. Young stems brown, moderately densely covered in short or moderately long, white, grey or sometimes yellowish appressed hair cover; older stems darker brown, glabrate. Internodes of young stems 1–5 mm long. Node buttresses lunate to elongate, or sometimes extending the full length of internodes, with bands of hair between; usually not very prominent on leafless stems. Leaves decussate, on short (0.5–1 mm), often red petioles, ascending at first, usually becoming patent, often with a distichous appearance on prostrate stems. Lamina glaucous or medium to dark green, elliptic or ovate 4–8 × 2–4 mm, flat or adaxially concave and slightly keeled, mid-vein evident; tip acute but usually blunt-pointed, sometimes obtuse; base cuneate; abaxial surface sparsely to moderately densely hairy, with or without an apical coma, often becoming glabrous as leaves age; stomata on both adaxial and abaxial surfaces. Inflorescences terminal, 5–15-flowered, receptacle densely covered in short hairs. Involucral bracts 4, the same size as ordinary leaves, or larger (6 × 4 mm). Plants gynodioecious. Flowers white, fragrant, on short pedicels (0.3 mm) densely covered with short hairs outside; inside hairless. ♀ tube 2.5–4 mm long, ovary portion 3 mm, calyx lobes 1–2 × 1 mm; ♀ tube 4–6 mm long, ovary portion 2 mm, calyx lobes 2–3 × 1.5–2 mm. Anther dehiscence introrse. Ovary with dense clump of short or long hairs at summit. Fruits ovoid, fleshy, orange or red, 4 × 3 mm. Seeds ovoid 2.7 × 2.3 mm. Flowering spring–summer.

[Reproduced from Burrows (2011, New Zealand J. Bot. 49: 41–106) with permission from The Royal Society of New Zealand.]