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  4. Leptospermum scoparium var. incanum

Leptospermum scoparium var. incanum

In cultivation ex Te Aupouri.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 19/07/2007, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
In cultivation ex Te Aupouri.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 19/07/2007, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
In cultivation ex Te Aupouri.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 19/07/2007, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Flowers and buds, Spirits Bay Road (October).<br>Photographer: John Smith-Dodsworth, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
A close up of the flowers of Leptospermum scoparium var. incanum, Puheke Beach, Karikari Peninsula, October 1992.<br>Photographer: Peter J. de Lange, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Leptospermum scoparium var. incanum.<br>Photographer: John Smith-Dodsworth, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Leptospermum scoparium var. incanum.<br>Photographer: John Smith-Dodsworth, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Great Exhibition bay.<br>Photographer: Lisa Forester, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0'>CC BY-SA</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Te Paki Forest, Northland.<br>Photographer: John Sawyer, Date taken: 01/08/2010, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Te Paki Forest, Northland.<br>Photographer: John Sawyer, Date taken: 01/08/2010, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Te Paki Forest, Northland.<br>Photographer: John Sawyer, Date taken: 01/08/2010, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Te Paki Forest, Northland.<br>Photographer: John Sawyer, Date taken: 01/08/2010, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Te Paki Forest, Northland.<br>Photographer: John Sawyer, Date taken: 01/08/2010, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Te Paki Forest, Northland.<br>Photographer: John Sawyer, Date taken: 01/08/2010, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Planted trees at Cape Reinga, Far North.<br>Photographer: John Sawyer, Date taken: 01/09/2013, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Te Kao, Far North.<br>Photographer: John Sawyer, Date taken: 29/05/2013, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
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Common names

mānuka

Biostatus

Native – Endemic taxon

Category

Vascular

Structural class

Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons

Simplified description

Small prickly shrub or small tree with flaky bark and hairy new growth and bearing masses of oval pointed leaves and, usually pinkish red-centred flowers. Endemic to northern Northland. Leaves rigid, 10–15 mm long by 1–2 mm wide, prickly to grasp. Flowers to 20 mm wide. Fruit a dry 7–8 mm wide capsule.

Flower colours

Red/Pink, White

Detailed description

Shrub or small tree up to 5 m tall. Bark grey, peeling in long flakes, which become curled, and papery with age. Wood red. Branches numerous, arising from base, often suckering when covered in sand, and/or sprouting adventitious roots. Young branches, young leaves and flower buds clad in long silky, grey hairs. Leaves leathery (almost woody), very dark green, becoming subglabrous, narrowly lanceolate 10–15 × 1–2 mm, apex drawn out into a long stiff, sharp point, midrib not especially obvious, leaf margin finely crenate. Flowers solitary in leaf axils, up to 20 mm diameter. Receptacle red or pink. Petals usually flushed pink or wholly pink, occasionally white or dark red. Stamens numerous. Capsule long persistent and woody, 7–8 mm. Seeds numerous, straw-like, compressed 2.0 × 0.3 mm.

Similar taxa

Easily distinguished from all other New Zealand and Australian forms of L. scoparium by the erect shrub habit, silky hairy leaves and stems, dark pink or pink flushed flowers, and by the very large capsule which scarcely opens except after fire or the death of the plant.

Distribution

Endemic. New Zealand: North Island (confined to the upper Northland Peninsula where it is abundant from Te Paki to Ahipara, and thence along the eastern coastline to Whangaroa). South of these stations it is locally present in mainly coastal shrublands, dunefield but also in some inland gumland scrub habitats. Exact southern limits are not, as yet clear.

Habitat

Abundant in coastal situations, especiallty dunefield, associated shrublands, gumland and on the margins of peat bogs.

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 | At Risk – Declining | Qualifiers: DPS, DPT

Jump to previous conservation statuses

Threats

Not seriously threatened, though some stands are at risk from clearance for farmland or through felling for firewood. However, the recent (2017) arrival of myrtle rust (Austropuccinia psidii) may pose a more serious threat to Leptospermum (see below).

Detailed taxonomy

Family

Myrtaceae

Authority

Leptospermum scoparium var. incanum Cockayne

Synonyms

None

Endemic taxon

Yes

Endemic genus

No

Endemic family

No

Ecology

Flowering

Throughout the year but with a peak in late winter early spring.

Fruiting

The capsules are long persistent so invariably mature plants possess at least some capsules.

Propagation technique

Very easy from fresh seed. Seed must be sown fresh, even if left for a few weeks before sowing viability can drop, especially if seed is allowed to dry out. Difficult from cuttings.

Other information

Cultivation

Occasionally cultivated. One cultivar known as ‘Cheryl Lee’ was popular in gardens, and commonly sold by garden centres for a while during the 1980s. Extreme pink-flowered forms from the Karikari Peninsula may be the basis for some of the cultivars now popular. Leptospermum scoparium ‘Keatleyi’ seems to be an early wild selection of this variety.

Myrtle Rust Threat

Myrtle rust (Austropuccinia psidii) was first detected in New Zealand in 2017. As there is as yet no known effective treatment for that rust. Overseas indications are that this rust is having a serious impact on Myrtaceae worldwide, including causing such severe declines in some that extinction of some species and genera seems inevitable. As such the New Zealand Threat Listing Panel elected to list all indigenous Myrtaceae using the ‘Precautionary Principle’ as ‘Threatened’ (de Lange et al. 2018). Hopefully this assessment will be proved wrong. As of 2018 there have been very few occurrences of myrtle rust on Leptospermum. However, the rust is still in its early establishment phase. Australian experience suggests it may take 10 or more years to truly establish which New Zealand Myrtaceae will be most affected. More information about myrtle rust can be found at myrtlerust.org.nz

Etymology

leptospermum: Slender seed

scoparium: Like a broom

Manaaki Whenua Online Interactive Key

Key to the Myrtaceae of New Zealand

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.

LEPSVI

Chromosome number

2n = 22

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 | Threatened – Nationally Vulnerable | Qualifiers: DP, De

2012 | At Risk – Declining | Qualifiers: DP

2009 | Not Threatened

2004 | Not Threatened

Jump to current conservation status

Referencing and citations

Attribution

Fact Sheet prepared for NZPCN by P.J. de Lange 1 February 2004. Description by P.J. de Lange.

NZPCN Fact Sheet citation

Please cite as: de Lange, P.J. (Year at time of access): Leptospermum scoparium var. incanum Fact Sheet (content continuously updated). New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/leptospermum-scoparium-var-incanum/ (Date website was queried)

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