''Archeria traversii'' is a
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...
of shrub in the family
Ericaceae
The Ericaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with c.4250 known species spread across 124 genera, making it th ...
.
Distribution
''Archeria traversii'' is scattered locally across southern
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...
(the
South Island
The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasma ...
and
Stewart Island
Stewart Island ( mi, Rakiura, ' glowing skies', officially Stewart Island / Rakiura) is New Zealand's third-largest island, located south of the South Island, across the Foveaux Strait. It is a roughly triangular island with a total land ar ...
), where it is endemic.
[Allan, H.H. 1961. Flora of New Zealand. Volume I: Indigenous Tracheophyta - Psilopsida, Lycopsida, Filicopsida, Gymnospermae, Dicotyledons. Government Printer, Wellington.] It is notably absent from
Marlborough and much of the eastern South Island.
Ecology
It is largely found in
shrubland
Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity. It ...
s and
conifer
Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All ex ...
-broadleaf forests, at
lowland
Upland and lowland are conditional descriptions of a plain based on elevation above sea level. In studies of the ecology of freshwater rivers, habitats are classified as upland or lowland.
Definitions
Upland and lowland are portions of p ...
to
montane
Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial ...
altitude
Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...
s. Flowering takes place from December to February, and fruiting from February to April.
[Smith-Dodsworth, J.C. 1991. New Zealand Native Shrubs and Climbers. David Bateman Ltd, Auckland.]
Morphology
; Habit: An erect
shrub, up to 5 m tall but often much shorter. It has spreading to ascending branches, with leaves that are fairly evenly spaced (rather than clustered, like
''A. racemosa''). Multiple trunks are often formed, and can be highly twisted, rough, and covered in
epiphytic
An epiphyte is an organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphytes grow are called phoroph ...
bryophyte
The Bryophyta s.l. are a proposed taxonomic division containing three groups of non-vascular land plants ( embryophytes): the liverworts, hornworts and mosses. Bryophyta s.s. consists of the mosses only. They are characteristically limited ...
s. The bark is dark brown in colour, with branchlets that are light reddish when young and light brown when mature.
;Leaves: Narrow lanceolate leaves, becoming glabrous and leathery. Dark green on the adaxial side, while abaxially they tend to be much paler. The leaf apices are acute to subacute, and sometimes reddish in colour. The base of the leaf is rigid and nearly
sessile
Sessility, or sessile, may refer to:
* Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about
* Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant
* Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...
, attached to the stem with a short and flat
petiole. Dimensions are roughly 7–12 mm long and 2–4 mm wide. Leaf margins are entire, minutely ciliolate, and flat to slightly recurved. Prominent
venation
Venation may refer to:
* Venation (botany), the arrangement of veins in leaves
* Wing venation, the arrangement of veins in insect wings
See also
*
* Vernation
Vernation (from ''vernal'' meaning ''spring'', since that is when leaves spring fort ...
can often be seen on the