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  4. Olearia ilicifolia

Olearia ilicifolia

Darran Mountains, Fiordland, 900 m asl.<br>Photographer: Jesse Bythell, Date taken: 29/12/2014, 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>
Young Valley, Mt Aspiring National Park.<br>Photographer: John Barkla, Date taken: 07/01/2013, 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>
Olearia ilicifolia, Catlins.<br>Photographer: John Barkla, 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>
Olearia ilicifolia, Siberia Valley.<br>Photographer: John Barkla, 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>
Olearia ilicifolia bark, Siberia Valley.<br>Photographer: John Barkla, 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>
Young Valley, Mt Aspiring National Park.<br>Photographer: John Barkla, Date taken: 07/01/2013, 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>
Young Valley, Mt Aspiring National Park.<br>Photographer: John Barkla, Date taken: 07/01/2013, 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>
Young Valley, Mt Aspiring National Park.<br>Photographer: John Barkla, Date taken: 07/01/2013, 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>
Young Valley, Mt Aspiring National Park.<br>Photographer: John Barkla, Date taken: 07/01/2013, 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>
Pureora Summit.<br>Photographer: Peter J. de Lange, Date taken: 15/01/2015, 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>
Pureora Summit.<br>Photographer: Peter J. de Lange, Date taken: 15/01/2015, 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>
Pureora Summit.<br>Photographer: Peter J. de Lange, Date taken: 15/01/2015, 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>
Longwood range, January.<br>Photographer: John Smith-Dodsworth, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Longwood range, January.<br>Photographer: John Smith-Dodsworth, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
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Common names

hakeke, mountain holly

Biostatus

Native – Endemic taxon

Category

Vascular

Structural class

Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons

Simplified description

Small spreading tree bearing dark-green to greyish-green leathery leaves with jagged, spiny margins. Bark flaking in long strips. Leaves 5–12 cm long × 1–2 cm wide. Flowers numerous, borne in dense clusters toward branchlet apices, bearing white ray florets and yellow disc-florets. Fruits small wind-borne brown seeds, surmounted by a readily detachable, fluffy, yellowish pappus.

Flower colours

White, Yellow

Detailed description

Much branched shrubs to small trees up to 6 × 3 m, usually forming a domed canopy unless growing in dense scrub. Trunk and lower branches covered in orange-grey bark, mature bark often semi-detached and peeling from base upwards in long strips. Branches many to few depending on conditions; branchlets pliant, initially pubescent, becoming glabrous with age, leaves usually clustered toward apices. Leaves long persistent, coriaceous borne on stout petioles 15–22 mm long; lamina 50–120 × 10–20 mm, linear-oblong to lanceolate; apices acute, acuminate, bases truncate, margins undulose, sharply serrate-dentate, teeth spinescent, adaxial surface dark green to fulvous grey-green; ± glabrous (immature and expanding leaves sparsely covered in appressed, fulvous-white tomentum), abaxially paler, finely clad in appressed fulvous-white tomentum), tomentum tending to shed with age. Inflorescence a lateral corymbose panicle, bearing 8–15(–20) capitula. Capitulum 8–12 mm long, 10–12 mm diameter. Pedicels 10–18 mm long, finely invested in fulvous-white to white appressed hairs. Involucre cylindrical, 2-seriate, outer abaxially villous, inner apically ciliate. Florets 15–20. Ray-florets 10–12(–16) pisillate, corolla glabrous, tube 2.2 mm long, ligulate with deflexed white limb 3.1–4.2 × 1.0–1.3 mm, 1–2(–3)-lobed at apex. Disc florets 5–8 per capitulum, hermaphrodite, corolla glabrous, yellow or pink, tube 2.9–3.1 mm long, lobes 5, 1.2–1.5 × 0.5 mm. Seeds (cypselae) 1.7–2.5 mm long, brown, narrowly oblong to narrowly oblong-elliptic or narrowly obovate-elliptic, longitudinally ribbed 3–6×, ribs raised; pappus caducous, 3–4 mm long, fulvous, finely barbellate.

Similar taxa

Easily distinguished from all other New Zealand Olearia species on account of the leaves which have serrate-dentate (finely ‘spiny’) undulating margins - a feature earning this species the vernacular ‘mountain holly’. Olearia ilicifolia readily hybridises with O. arborescens (these hybrids are called O. ×macrodonta) and less frequently with O. lacumosa and O. quinquevulnera.

Distribution

Endemic. New Zealand, North, South and Stewart Islands from the Pukeamaru and Herangi Range south.

Habitat

Lowland to subalpine - montane to subalpine in northern part of range but extending to lowland forest and scrub in South Island part of range. A species of shrublands, river flats and valley heads, also prominent on ridgelines in so called ‘cloud’ forest and ‘goblin forest’. A common riparian species in the montane river systems of the western South Island.

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

Jump to previous conservation statuses

Detailed taxonomy

Family

Asteraceae

Authority

Olearia ilicifolia Hook.f.

Synonyms

Olearia multibracteolata Colenso

Taxonomic notes

Some botanists regard North and South Island populations of Olearia ilicifolia as distinct and warranting some level of taxonomic recognition. This matter requires further critical investigation.

Endemic taxon

Yes

Endemic genus

No

Endemic family

No

Ecology

Flowering

December - February

Fruiting

April - June

Propagation technique

Easily grown from semi-hardwood cuttings and fresh seed. Does best in a cool climate (dislikes hot or humid conditions). A beautiful small tree or shrub well suited to a rockery margin. Does best when planted in a well drained, moist, humus enriched soil. Does not tolerate drying out.

Wetland plant indicator status rating

Information derived from the revised national wetland plant list prepared to assist councils in delineating and monitoring wetlands (Clarkson et al., 2021 Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research Contract Report LC3975 for Hawke’s Bay Regional Council). The national plant list categorises plants by the extent to which they are found in wetlands and not ‘drylands’. The indicator status ratings are OBL (obligate wetland), FACW (facultative wetland), FAC (facultative), FACU (facultative upland), and UPL (obligate upland). If you have suggestions for the Wetland Indicator Status Rating, please contact: [Enable JavaScript to view protected content]

FACU: Facultative Upland

Occasionally is a hydrophyte but usually occurs in uplands (non-wetlands).

Other information

Etymology

olearia: Named after Johann Gottfried Olearius, a 17th-century German scholar, writer of hymns and author of Specimen Florae Hallensis

ilicifolia: Leaves like holly (Ilex)

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.

OLEILI

Chromosome number

2n = 108

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

Jump to current conservation status

Regional conservation statuses

Otago: 2024 | Regionally Not Threatened

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 “Regional conservation status of indigenous vascular plants in Otago” Jarvie S et al. (2024) report.

Referencing and citations

References and further reading

Webb, C.J.; Simpson, M.J.A. 2001: Seeds of New Zealand Gymnosperms and Dicotyledons. Christchurch, Manuka Press.

Attribution

Fact Sheet prepared for the NZPCN by P.J. de Lange (25 January 2015). Description mostly based on observations made from fresh and dried specimens with the seed (cypselae) description adapted from Webb & Simpson (2001).

NZPCN Fact Sheet citation

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

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