Androstoma empetrifolium
Synonyms
Cyathodes empetrifolia (Hook.f.) Hook.f., Styphelia taxifolia Sleumer, Styphelia androstoma F.Muell. (nom. illegit.), Styphelia hookeri F.Muell. (nom. illegit.)
Family
Ericaceae
Flora category
Vascular – Native
Endemic taxon
Yes
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
ANDEMP
Chromosome number
2n = 24
Current conservation status
The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2017 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS). This report includes a statistical summary and brief notes on changes since 2012 and replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Authors: By Peter J. de Lange, Jeremy R. Rolfe, John W. Barkla, Shannel P. Courtney, Paul D. Champion, Leon R. Perrie, Sarah M. Beadel, Kerry A. Ford, Ilse Breitwieser, Ines Schönberger, Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Peter B. Heenan and Kate Ladley.
2012 | Not Threatened
Previous conservation statuses
2009 | Not Threatened
2004 | Not Threatened
Brief description
Low-growing sprawling reddish shrub. Leaves spreading, small, curved, appearing blunt, reddish or dark green above (somewhat pubescent), undersides 3-veined (veins parallel), white, pubescent. Flower small, white, tubular, single or in small clusters. Fruit fleshy, white, pink or red, ovoid
Distribution
Endemic. North, South, Stewart, Chatham, Auckland and Campbell islands, from Te Moehau and Mt Pirongia south.
Habitat
Coastal to alpine (montane to alpine in northern part of range otherwise extending to sea level). A species of open shrubland, tussock grassland, peat bogs and other poorly drained sites, as well as mixed alpine and subalpine herbfield. It is also frequently found on ridgelines on poorly draining, skeletal soils and on rock outcrops.
Features
Prostrate, semi-prostrate (decumbent) sometimes trailing, widely spreading woody shrubs up to 1.0 × 0.2 m. Stems spreading, brown, grey-brown or red-brown; branchlets red-brown, yellow-brown or brown, ribbed, pubescent. Leaves dark green, bronze-green, maroon adaxially, abaxially pubescent, alternate, evenly spaced, ± spreading, erect or reflexed, shedding along branchlets, and absent on main stems; petiolate, petiole erect, ± appressed, 0.5-0.9 mm long, glabrous; lamina linear, 2.3-4.8 × 0.6-1.1 mm, coriaceous, convex (rarely flat); apex obtuse surmounted by a minute callus; margin recurved, glabrous or ciliate; adaxially ± glossy, glabrous or finely pubescent; abaxially pubescent with hairs either confined to interveinal grooves or pubescent overall, striate, veins 3 parallel, conspicuous, abaxially strongly ribbed. Plants hermaphrodite. Inflorescences terminal, 1-3-flowered,terminating in a rudimentary bud. Flowers pendulous, subtended by a single bract and 2 prominently keeled bracteoles, not pedicellate above bracteoles so appearing spicate; pedicel 0.4-1 mm long; bract, bracteoles, and sepals ovate or oblong, obtuse, glabrous or rarely puberulent outside; bract 0.5-0.9 × 0.5 mm, margin ciliolate; bracteoles non-imbricate, uniform in size, 0.8-1.5 × 0.7-1 mm, conspicuously striate particularly when dry, margin ciliate; sepals 1.3-1.9 × 0.8-1.1 mm, margin ciliate, bearing stomata on the adaxial surface (with a few present within hair-bearing clefts on the abaxial surface). Corolla tube equal or shorter than calyx, thin, campanulate, 1.1-1.6 mm long, inner portion of tube glabrous; lobes spreading, acute, equalling the tube, 1.0-1.5 mm long, sparsely puberulent to puberulent towards apices. Anthers emarginate, 0.3-0.5 mm long, apically attached by a short thin filament inserted just below sinus of corolla tube; the filaments exserted, 0.3-0.5 mm long. Ovary 3-4-locular, spherical to ovoid, glabrous, 0.5-1.0 × 0.5-0.8 mm wide; style straight, glabrous, 0.5-0.8 mm long; stigma 0.1 mm long exserted. Nectary annular deeply lobed, occasionally comprised of distinct scales, these 0.2-0.4 mm tall, glabrous. Fruit red (occasionally white or pink), 2.0-3.0 × 1.5-2 mm, glabrous. Endocarp 1.6-2.3 × 1.6-2.1 mm, brown, orange to ornage-brown, broadly elliptic to ovoid, obscurely 3-angled, often longitudinally ridged, somewhat granular.
Similar taxa
None.
Flowering
November - January
Fruiting
January - August
Life cycle
Fleshy drupes are dispersed by frugivory (Thorsen et al., 2009).
Propagation technique
Difficult. Should not be removed from the wild
Where To Buy
Not commercially available.
Taxonomic notes
Until recently Androstoma had been treated as a monotypic and endemic genus (Hooker 1844; Weiller 1996). In 2005 an further Australian (Tasmania) endemic species that had been variously referred to Pentachondra, Trochocarpa, Styphelia and Leucopogon, was transferred to Androstoma as A. verticillata (Hook.f.) C.J.Quinn (Quinn et al. 2005). Androstoma empetrifolium was treated as Cyathodes empetrifolia (Hook.f.) Hook.f. by Allan (1961)
Attribution
Fact Sheet prepared for the NZPCN by P.J. de Lange (19 November 2014). Description based on Weiller (1996), Quinn et al (2005), Webb & Simpson (2001) and observations made from fresh and dried specimens
References and further reading
Allan, H.H. 1961: Flora of New Zealand. Vol. I. Wellington, Government Printer.
Hooker, J.D. 1844: 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.London, Reeve, Brothers. 208 p.
Quinn, C. J.; Brown, E. A.; Heslewood, M. M.; Crayn, D. M. 2005: Generic concepts in Styphelieae (Ericaceae): the Cyathodes group. Australian Systematic Botany 18: 439-454
Thorsen, M. J.; Dickinson, K. J. M.; Seddon, P. J. 2009. Seed dispersal systems in the New Zealand flora. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 11: 285-309.
Webb, C.J.; Simpson, M.J.A. 2001: Seeds of New Zealand Gymnosperms and Dicotyledons. Christchurch, Manuka Press.
Weiller, C.M. 1996: Reinstatement of the genus Androstoma Hook.f. (Epacridaceae). New Zealand Journal of Botany 34: 179-185.
NZPCN Fact Sheet citation
Please cite as: de Lange, P.J. (Year at time of access): Androstoma empetrifolium Fact Sheet (content continuously updated). New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/androstoma-empetrifolium/ (Date website was queried)