Leptecophylla juniperina
Leptecophylla juniperina is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae and is native to Australia and New Zealand. It is usually a shrub with narrowly egg-shaped, sharply pointed leaves, bell-shaped flowers arranged singly and white or pink drupes.
Description
Leptecophylla juniperina is a compact or tall shrub that typically grows to a height of, rarely a tree to and has rounded brown branchlets. Its leaves are narrowly egg-shaped, long, wide with a sharply pointed tip long and a petiole long. The flowers are arranged singly in leaf axils or on the ends of branchlets, male flowers on a pedicel long and female flowers on a pedicel long. There are egg-shaped bracts long and 8 to 24 overlapping, egg-shaped bracteoles long on the pedicels. The sepals are long and the petal tube is bell-shaped and longer than the sepals, the male flowers long and the female flowers long. Flowering time depends on subspecies, and the fruit is a white or pale to dark pink drupe, high and wide.
Taxonomy
This species was first formally described in 1775 by Johann Forster and Georg Forster who gave it the name Epacris juniperina in their book Characteres Generum Plantarum. In 2000, Carolyn M. Weiller transferred the species to the genus Leptecophylla as L. juniperina in the journal Muelleria. and described three subspecies:Leptecophylla juniperina C.M.Weiller subsp. juniperina has glabrous petals, leaves long and wide with flat edges, 5 veins, and flowers from September to May.Leptecophylla juniperina subsp. oxycedrus C.M.Weiller has glabrous petals, leaves long and wide, 3 to 5 veins and mainly flowers from September and October.Leptecophylla juniperina subsp. parvifolia C.M.Weiller has petals with a few rigid hairs, leaves wide, 5 to 7 veins and mainly flowers in November and December.
Distribution and habitat
Leptecophylla juniperina is native to New Zealand and Victoria and Tasmania. Subspecies Juniperina is widespread in forest and shrubland in New Zealand and in lowland areas of eastern, north-western and western areas of Tasmania. Subspecies oxycedrus is restricted to exposed, rocky coastal regions of southern and western Tasmania, Bass Strait Islands and southern Victoria and subsp. parvifolia is common at altitudes above in central and eastern parts of Tasmania.
Common names in New Zealand include prickly heath and prickly mingimingi. Māori names for this plant include hukihuki, hukihukiraho, inakapōriro, inangapōriro, kūkuku, miki, mikimiki, mingi, mingimingi ''ngohungohu, pā tōtara, taumingi, and tūmingi. In Australia, subspecies parvifolia is known as 'pink mountain berry'''