''Kunzea robusta'', commonly known as rawirinui or kānuka, is a tree in the myrtle

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Myrtaceae Myrtaceae (), the myrtle family, is a family of dicotyledonous plants placed within the order Myrtales. Myrtle, pōhutukawa, bay rum tree, clove, guava, acca (feijoa), allspice, and eucalyptus are some notable members of this group. All ...

, and is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to New Zealand. It has rough, stringy, or corky bark, lance-shaped leaves that are darker on the upper surface, flowers in compact groups of up to 30, each with five or six white

petal Petals are modified leaves that form an inner whorl surrounding the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often brightly coloured or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''corol ...

s, and about 35

stamen The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament ...

s of varying lengths.

Description

''Kunzea robusta'' is a spreading shrub or tree, typically growing to a height of with rough, stringy, or

tessellated A tessellation or tiling is the covering of a surface, often a plane, using one or more geometric shapes, called ''tiles'', with no overlaps and no gaps. In mathematics, tessellation can be generalized to higher dimensions and a variety of g ...

bark, which peels upward in long strips. The leaves are dark green above, paler below, lance-shaped, varying in size from long, from wide, and

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 ...

or with a short

petiole Petiole may refer to: *Petiole (botany), the stalk of a leaf, attaching the blade to the stem *Petiole (insect anatomy) In entomology, petiole is the technical term for the narrow waist of some hymenopteran insects, especially ants, bees, and ...

. The flowers are white and arranged in compact groups of up to thirty, each flower on a

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

long. The floral cup is conical to top-shaped or cup-shaped, with five papery

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 Etymology The term ''sepalum'' ...

s about long and wide. There are five or six egg-shaped to almost round

s long and wide. Between 15 and 60

s, some slightly longer than the petals and others much shorter are arranged in two indistinct rows around the floral cup. Flowering occurs between April and June and is followed by fruit, which is a hairy, conical to more or less top-shaped capsule long and wide. The capsule usually opens to release its seed when mature.

Taxonomy and naming

''Kunzea robusta'' was first formally described in 2014 by New Zealand botanist

Peter James de Lange Peter James de Lange (born 1966) is a New Zealand botanist at Unitec Institute of Technology. He is a Fellow of the Linnean Society, and has received the New Zealand Botanical Society Allan Mere award and the Loder Cup for his botanical work. ...

from a specimen he collected near Papatea Bay. The description was published in ''

PhytoKeys ''PhytoKeys'' is a peer-reviewed, open-access online and print botanical journal. Its stated goal is "to support free exchange of ideas and information in systematic botany". Printed issues of the journal are available in the libraries of the Unit ...

''. The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

(''robusta'') is a

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

word meaning "hard and strong like oak", referring to the stature of mature trees of this species. The taxonomic revision of the ''Kunzea ericoides'' complex by de Lange identified ''Kunzea robusta'' as a new species, but a more recent analysis of the ''Kunzea'' complex observed little genetic variation and morphological distinction between the species, questioning the evidence for 10 endemic ''Kunzea'' species and suggesting further revision. ''Kānuka'' more often refers to ''

Kunzea ericoides ''Kunzea ericoides'', commonly known as kānuka or white tea-tree, is a tree or shrub in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to New Zealand. It has white or pink flowers similar to those of ''Leptospermum'' and from its first formal desc ...

''; it is a

doublet Doublet is a word derived from the Latin ''duplus'', "twofold, twice as much",