Dracophyllum traversii
Common names
mountain neinei, grass tree, pineapple tree
Biostatus
Native – Endemic taxon
Current conservation status
The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2022-2023 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS) – more information about this can be found on the NZTCS website. This report includes replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Previous assessments can be found here.
- Conservation status of vascular plants in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2023. 2024. Peter J. de Lange, Jane Gosden, Shannel P. Courtney, Alexander J. Fergus, John W. Barkla, Sarah M. Beadel, Paul D. Champion, Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Troy Makan and Pascale Michel Department of Conservation. Source: NZTCS and licensed by DOC for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
2023 | Not Threatened
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons
Simplified description
Robust small tree with clusters of broad grass-like curved leaves at the end of stout branches. Bark flaky red brown. Leaves 90-300mm long by 40-50mm wide, piling up underneath plant, greyish when young. Flowers in a large pyramid-shaped cluster at the tip of branches. Fruit a dry capsule.
Detailed description
A shrub or a tree 0.2–13.0 m tall. Branches form an open candelabrum–shaped crown. Bark on old branches light brown, flaky, young stems reddish brown. Leaves crowded at tips of branches in a bromelioid manner, lamina sheath light green to light brown, 30–70 × 30–50 mm, coriaceous, striate, tapering, margins membranous, smooth; lamina coriaceous, sometimes with a glaucous bloom, linear–triangular to lanceolate, 90–860 × 17–50 mm, surfaces glabrous, prominently striated; margins cartilaginous, serrulate with 18–20 teeth per 10 mm. Inflorescence shorter than the leaves, dense, 180–400 mm long, pyramidal and densely branched; rachis and pedicels pubescent to hirsute, light green to reddish; inflorescence axis 13.0–16.5 mm in diameter; basal inflorescence branch 30–60 mm long, suberect to at right angles with inflorescence axis; inflorescence bracts caducous, over-topping flowers, light green, whitish at base and pink–tipped to entirely pink, broadly ovate at base, 130–240 × 25–50 mm, surfaces glabrous, margins minutely ciliate. Flowers 500–3000+, in groups of more than 10 at base of inflorescence, pedicellate; bracteoles caducous, recaulescent, deciduous, with one bracteole situated just below the perianth and the other in the middle of the pedicel, shorter than flower, 4.0–4.8 × 0.5–0.7 mm, glabrous; pedicels straight, 0.5–2.0 mm long, pubescent to tomentose. Sepals red to occasionally green, ovate to broadly ovate, 1.2–3.0 × 1.1–2.5 mm, equaling corolla tube, striate, surfaces glabrous; margins ciliate; apices subacute to obtuse. Corolla red, tube sometimes white; corolla tube broadly campanulate, widened at mouth, 2.7–3.0 × 4–5 mm; corolla lobes reflexed, oblong, longer than corolla tube, 2.5–2.8 × 2.0–2.5 mm; apices obtuse; surfaces glabrous. Stamens inserted at top of corolla tube, filaments 1.0–1.5 mm long; anthers exserted, oblong, pink turning light yellow with age and 1.8–2.0 mm long. Ovary subglobose, 1.4–1.5 × 1.8–2.0 mm, glabrous, apex round; nectary scales oblong, 1.0–1.5 long and wide, apices retuse; style exserted, 2–3 mm long, glabrous, lengthening in fruit; stigma five–lobed. Fruit not included in persistent calyx, reddish to purplish brown, 1.9–2.0 × 2.8–3.0 mm, depressed–globose; apex round, glabrous. Seeds yellowish brown, ovoid, 0.95–1.0 mm long, testa slightly reticulate.
Similar taxa
Dracophyllum traversii is easily recognised by the candelabra–shaped growth habit, bark flaking in large pieces, broad strongly curved leaves, glaucescent young leaves, stout panicle with red flowers having the corolla lobes longer than the corolla tube and capsules 2.8–3.0 mm in diameter. It is most similar to Dracophyllum latifolium from which it differs by its more robust growth habit, serrulate rather than serrate to denticulate leaf margins bearing 18-20 rather than 12-30 teeth on their margins; longer and wider sepals (2–3 × 2.0–2.5 mm cf. 0.7–1.5 × 1.0–1.7 mm), with the upper surface glabrous rather than pubescent and the margins rather than toothed in the upper third; by the long corolla tube (2.7–3.0 × 4–5 mm cf. 1.5–2.0 × 1.5–2.5 mm), wide corolla lobes (2.5–2.8 × 2.0–2.5 mm cf. 1.5–2.0 × 1.5–2.0 mm), and subglobose rather than ovate ovary. The seeds of D. traversii are smaller than those of D. latifolium (0.95–1.0 mm cf. 1.2–1.3 mm).
Distribution
Endemic. New Zealand: North and South Islands. In the North Island scattered from Waima Forest south to near Taumarunui, East Cape and the southern Central Volcanic Plateau. In the South Island mostly westerly from North West Nelson to Central Otago and eastern Fiordland.
Detailed taxonomy
Genus
Family
Synonyms
Dracophyllum pyramidale W.R.B.Oliv.
Endemic taxon
Yes
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Ecology
Flowering
October–February
Fruiting
December-May
Life cycle and dispersal
Minute seeds are wind dispersed (Thorsen et al., 2009).
Propagation technique
Difficult. Should not be removed from the wild. Don’t be tempted - take photographs instead! Dracophyllum traversii is occasionally stocked by specialist nurseries (take care though to check the soil surrounding the rootstock to see if the plants on offer have been dug from the wild, as plants dug from the wild often persist for a few months before dying), and if grown from seed such plants may occasionally thrive in cultivation. Does best in a semi-shaded site, planted in a humus enriched, moist (not water logged) soil.
Other information
Cultivation
Occasionally available from specialist native plant nurseries.
Etymology
dracophyllum: Dragon leaf, from its likeness to the dragon tree of the Canary Islands
traversii: Named after William Thomas Locke Travers (1819-1903) who was an Irish lawyer, magistrate, politician, explorer, naturalist, photographer. He lived in New Zealand from 1849 and was a fellow of the Linnean Society.
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.
DRATRA
Chromosome number
2n = 26
Previous conservation statuses
The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2022-2023 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS) – more information about this can be found on the NZTCS website. This report includes replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Previous assessments can be found here.
- Conservation status of vascular plants in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2023. 2024. Peter J. de Lange, Jane Gosden, Shannel P. Courtney, Alexander J. Fergus, John W. Barkla, Sarah M. Beadel, Paul D. Champion, Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Troy Makan and Pascale Michel Department of Conservation. Source: NZTCS and licensed by DOC for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
2017 | Not Threatened
2012 | Not Threatened
2009 | Not Threatened
2004 | Not Threatened
Regional conservation statuses
Auckland: 2025 | Regionally At Risk – Regionally Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: DPS, DPT, OL
The regional threat classification system leverages off the national assessments in the NZTCS, providing information relevant for the regional context. Auckland conservation status information is sourced from the “Conservation status of vascular plant species in Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland” Simpkins E et al. (2025) report.
Otago: 2025 | Regionally Data Deficient
The regional threat classification system leverages off the national assessments in the NZTCS, providing information relevant for the regional context. Otago conservation status information is sourced from the “Conservation Status of Indigenous Vascular Plants in Otago, 2025” Jarvie S et al. (2025) report.
Referencing and citations
References and further reading
Venter, S. 2009: A taxonomic revision of the genus Dracophyllum Labill. (Ericaceae). Unpublished Phd Thesis, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington.
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
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared for NZPCN by P.J. de Lange (3 April 2012). Description adapted from Venter (2009)