Gaultheria antipoda Forst. f.

An evergreen erect shrub 2 to 4 ft high; young shoots usually bristly and downy. Leaves oval, orbicular or obovate, toothed, 1⁄3 to 2⁄3 in. long, thick and leathery, more or less undulate, strongly veined, glabrous, apple-green; stalk very short, bristly. Flowers solitary in the terminal leaf-axils. Corolla white, 1⁄8 in. long, cylindrical, borne on a downy flower-stalk about as long as itself. Calyx-lobes ovate-oblong, pointed, usually enlarging at the fruiting stage and becoming fleshy and enclosing the seed-vessel, the whole a white or red berry-like fruit about 1⁄2 in. across.

Native of New Zealand in the North and South Islands from sea-level to 4,000 ft altitude; introduced in 1820. It is a variable shrub, especially in habit and size of leaf; the latter, on young plants raised from seed, remain for some years about 1⁄4 in. or less in length. Sometimes the upper leaves of the flower-bearing shoots are much reduced, so that the inflorescence becomes racemose at the top. It is perhaps the hardiest of the New Zealand gaultherias.