Leucopogon fraseri (Patotara)
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Leucopogon fraseri growing on the roadside near Lake Coleridge. South Island.
Ripe and new green fruit.
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Kingdom:
- Plantae
- Angiosperms
- Eudicots
- Asterids
- Order: Ericales
- Family: Ericaceae
- Genus: Leucopogon
- Binomial name: Leucopogon fraseri
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Common names:
- Patotara
- Dwarf mingimingi.
Relatives
- Acrothamnus colensoi (Colensos Mingimingi)
- Androstoma empetrifolia (Mountain Mikimiki)
- Dracophyllum adamsii
- Dracophyllum arboreum (Chatham Island grass tree)
- Dracophyllum densum
- Dracophyllum elegantissimum
- Dracophyllum filifolium (Needle-leaf grass tree)
- Dracophyllum latifolium (Neinei, Spiderwood)
- Dracophyllum longifolium (Inaka)
- Dracophyllum recurvum (Curved Leaf Grass Tree)
- Dracophyllum sinclairii (Gumlands grass tree)
- Dracophyllum strictum (Totorowhiti)
- Dracophyllum traversii (Mountain neinei)
- Dracophyllum uniflorum (Turpentine Bush)
- Dracophyllum uniflorum var. frondosum (Sprawling inaka)
- Gaultheria antipoda (Snowberry)
- Gaultheria colensoi (Mountain snowberry)
- Gaultheria crassa
- Gaultheria oppositifolia (Niniwa)
- Leptecophylla juniperina (Prickly Mingimingi)
- Leptecophylla robusta (Pouteretere)
- Leucopogon fasciculatus (Soft Mingimingi)
- Leucopogon fraseri (Patotara)
- Leucopogon parviflorus (Chatham Island Mingimingi)
- Pentachondra pumila
Leucopogon fraseri is a small, low-growing shrub with creeping, underground stems, often forming quite extensive patches. The wiry stems are usually 5-15 cm tall and clothed for much of their length with foliage.
The leaves can be quite prickly to the touch and are 4-9 mm long and 1-3 mm wide, quite hard of texture and the tip is abruptly narrowed to a fine but pungent point. Their upper surface is deep green, greyish, or yellowish- to bronzy green. Its flowers are white and strongly honey-scented 1-1.3 cm long, with five distinctly bearded lobes at the mouth of the tube. They are produced from the leaf axils along the stem. It produces orange fruits which are 8-9 mm long. L. fraseri often has a long flowering season and both flowers and fruit can be seen on plants at the one time. It can be found growing in the North, South and Stewart Islands in coastal to low-alpine regions throughout from sea level to 1600 metres. Usually common in dry places in coastal dune hollows, low tussock grasslands, rocky places and fellfields.