Sprengelia incarnata
Common names
Pink swamp heath
Biostatus
Native
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons
Simplified description
Shrub to 2m tall with erect twigs covered in spirals of small twisted pointed leaves and with pinkish flowers and dry fruit inhabiting a few sites in Fiordland. Leaves 5-10mm long, with wide base that clasps the stem, margin finely hairy (lens needed). Flowers 5mm wide, towards tip of twigs. Capsule 2-3mm wide.
Flower colours
Green, Red/Pink
Detailed description
Spindly, erect, sparingly branched, glabrous shrubs, up to 2 m tall, sometimes low and spreading. Young stems honey-brown to reddish brown, smooth, older stems grey-brown or grey. Leaves persistent, eventually falling on older branches leaving a smooth surface without leaf scars; imbricate, with broad sheathing base completely enclosing stem, lamina bronze-green, green to yellow-green, at first widening broader than sheath and then tapering to hard, pungent tip, concave, rigid, spreading, 7-20(-25) mm long. Flowers solitary, terminal on short lateral branches, crowded toward the end of the main branches, inflorescences ovate, bracts numerous, foliose, similar to but smaller than leaves, sometimes obscuring flowers. Sepals and petals 5, equal, 5-10(-12) mm long, spreading widely at anthesis. Sepals, rigid, lanceolate, scarious, pale pink or greenish. Corolla-tube very short or formed from the petals which are free at the base, and then cohering to form a short tube above; if tube present then lobes long, narrowly lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, spreading, dark pink. Stamens 5, inserted on the receptacle, cohering to form a tube around the style, filaments pink or pinkish-white ± flattened upper ½-¼ papillose-hairy; anther basifixed, bilocular dehiscing along a single longitudinal slit, pollen dark orange yellow to orange-brown. Nectary absent. Ovary 5-locular. Style filiform, = to slightly longer than stamens, pink; stigma capitate, scarcely wider than style, dark carmine. Fruit a dry, yellow-grown, subcylindrical capsule.
Similar taxa
None. However, Sprengelia could possibly be confused with Dracophyllum from which it differs by its leaves which when they fall leave no abscission mark resulting in smooth bark; by the terminal, solitary, much larger, pink flowers; and by the stamens cohering to form a tube around the style
Distribution
Indigenous. New Zealand: South Island (Fiordland National Park (Chalky-Dusky Peninsula (Wilson River-Macnamara Creek Saddle), Resolution Island (Five Fingers Peninsula)). Also Australia (Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales)
Habitat
Coastal to montane in open, windswept, tussock-bog containing kahikatoa (Leptospermum scoparium), yellow silver pine (Lepidothamnus intermedius), Dracophyilum longifolium, Gleichenia dicarpa, Sphagnum moss, and Bulbinella gibbsii var. balanifera
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 – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: RR, SO
Threats
A Naturally Uncommon, Range-restricted species locally abundant within its few known habitats. There are no known threats. All known populations occur within Fiordland National Park.
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Synonyms
None applicable to New Zealand
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Ecology
Flowering
Throughout the year
Fruiting
Throughout the year
Propagation technique
Difficult. Should not be removed from the wild.
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]
FACW: Facultative Wetland
Usually is a hydrophyte but occasionally found in uplands (non-wetlands).
Other information
Where To Buy
Not Commercially Available
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.
SPRINC
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 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: RR, SO
2012 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: DP, SO
2009 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon
2004 | Range Restricted
Referencing and citations
References and further reading
Moore, L.B. 1969: Sprengelia incarnata Sm: an Australian Plant in Fiordland. New Zealand Journal of Botany 7: 96-99.
Attribution
Fact Sheet prepated by P.J. de Lange 27 June 2006. Description drawn up from herbarium specimens held at AK and CHR. Useful information on the Fiordland populations of Sprengelia can be found in Moore (1969).
NZPCN Fact Sheet citation
Please cite as: de Lange, P.J. (Year at time of access): Sprengelia incarnata Fact Sheet (content continuously updated). New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/sprengelia-incarnata/ (Date website was queried)