Kunzea amathicola de Lange & Toelken

kānuka, rawiritoa

New Zealand endemic.

Rare in cultivation.

Western coastal areas and lowlands, predominantly in sandy soils associated with dunes in the upper and lower parts of the North Island, and north-western parts of Nelson in the South Island of New Zealand.

• Branchlets with copious silky hairs.
• Different juvenile and adult foliage types (but see K. robusta).
• Juvenile leaves obovate, adult leaves often so (K. linearis leaves linear).
• Leaves with copiously hairy leaf margins and midribs (but see K. robusta) with the hairs meeting at the leaf apex.
• Flowers stalked (K. linearis flowers ± stalkless).
• Flower spikes can be long (to 200 mm).
• Fruit ± 4–6 mm in diam., flat-topped when valves closed.

Shrubs mostly to about 3 m tall, adopting a low sprawling habit on mobile sand, sand dunes and sandy soils, or may be trees up to 15 m tall when extending inland onto clay soils.

Bark dark and furrowed. Branchlets with copious silky hairs.

Plants may possess juvenile or adult foliage (heterophyllous); adult leaves generally 2.5 times as long and 1.5 times as wide as juvenile leaves. Leaves alternate, ovate to obovate, (4–)5–7(–12) mm long, (1.5–)2–3 mm wide, dark green above, paler below, leaf surfaces mostly hairless (but margins copiously hairy with hairs meeting at the leaf apex), not puckered; margins entire; tips blunt; leaf stalks absent.

Flowers borne in elongated clusters to 200 mm long, stem with silky hairs; flowers ± 7–12 mm in diam., stalks present, petals 5, white; oil glands colourless; sepals 5, tips free, stamens 38–90, white, longer than petals. Main flowering period: late spring to summer, but some flowers may be present at any time of the year.

Fruit dry, 5-locular, ± 4–6 mm wide, flat-topped when valves closed.

The inflorescences of K. amathicola are most similar to K. linearis but it is distinguished by possessing ovate to obovate as opposed to linear leaves, as well as stalked as opposed to stalkless flowers. Kunzea amathicola can be confused with K. robusta with which it sometimes grows; it differs, however, by the elongated inflorescences, leaf shape and copious covering of hairs on the leaf margins. Kunzea amathicola also resembles K. triregensis, but the latter is the sole representative of the genus on the Three Kings Islands.

Kunzea amathicola is a recently described (de Lange 2014) New Zealand endemic coastal species. It has a 2018 conservation status of Threatened – Nationally Vulnerable.

The genus Kunzea also occurs in Australia, where it is represented by more than 50 species of which three (K. ambigua, K. baxteri, K. parvifolia) are cultivated occasionally in gardens in New Zealand; another nine species are recorded as having been included in research trials or as rare garden occurrences.

• Flora of New Zealand Online
• GBIF
• iNaturalist NZ
• NZPCN