Kunzea linearis (Kirk) de Lange & Toelken

Kunzea ericoides var. linearis (Kirk) W.Harris

kānuka, rawiri

New Zealand endemic.

Rare in cultivation.

Mainly coastal shrublands and cliff faces in the North Island of New Zealand from Te Paki to northern Waikato.

• Leaves linear.
• Branchlets with copious long appressed hairs.
• Flowers ± sessile, inflorescence therefore spike-like.
• Sepals erect, persistent, as long as petals.
• Petals erect.

Shrub to small trees up to ± 12 m tall.

Bark brown, firmly attached, but peeling and leaving centrally-attached flakes. Branchlets with copious hairs.

Leaves crowded towards branch tips, alternate, silvery-grey (due to hair), becoming dark green (as hairs shed), linear, ± 12–13(–19) mm long, ± 0.7–1 mm wide, leaf surfaces hairy, rarely hairless, not puckered; margins entire, hairy; tips acute; leaf stalks absent.

Flowers borne in spike-like inflorescences 20–80 mm long or more, axis with silky hairs; flowers ± 5–12 mm in diam., stalks absent or very short, petals 5, white, cream, or pale pink, oil glands colourless; sepals 5, tips free, red-green, lobes erect, persistent; stamens 32–46(–60), white, longer than petals. Main flowering period: late spring to summer, but some flowers may be present in winter or autumn.

Fruit dry, (3–)5-locular, ± 2.5–4 mm wide, flat-topped when valves closed.

Kunzea linearis is distinguished from K. amathicola by possessing linear as opposed to ovate to obovate leaves, as well as ± stalkless as opposed to stalked flowers. Kunzea linearis also resembles K. ericoides which has nearly hairless branchlets furnished with minute, sparse erect hairs, and nearly hairless bright green linear, linear-lanceolate, to narrowly lanceolate leaves, and stalked flowers.

Kunzea linearis is distinguished from all other New Zealand members of the K. ericoides complex by having linear leaves, spike-like inflorescences bearing sessile flowers, narrow, long, erect, persistent calyx lobes and erect petals.

Kunzea linearis is a reranking of K. ericoides var. linearis. Of all the newly recognised species in New Zealand Kunzea (de Lange 2014), K. linearis is probably the most easily recognised due to clear and constant morphological differences. It has a 2018 conservation status of Threatened – Nationally Vulnerable.

The genus Kunzea also occurs in Australia, where it is represented by more than 40 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