Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Ericales Bercht. & J.Presl
Family
Ericaceae
Genus
Dracophyllum Labill.
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Dracophyllum muscoides Hook.f., Handb. New Zealand Fl. 183 (1864)
Synonymy:
Type: New Zealand. Alps of Otago, Mount Alta and Hector’s Col, 7000–8000 feet [~2133–2438 m], 1864. J. Hector & J. Buchanan s.n. (holo: K!). The type sheet comprises three different collections made by different people and at different localities. The eight specimens in the top left-hand corner of the sheet are the Hector and Buchanan material and was determined here as such.
Etymology:
Likened to a moss cushion.
 Description

Plant with woody subterranean stems and very close-set subherbaceous slender erect branches up to c. 4 cm. tall; branchlets ± 25 × 2.5 mm., including the densely imbricate lvs. Sheath broad-ovate, c. 1 mm. long with thin margins, rather abruptly tapering into shining, rigid, ovate-subulate, minutely ciliolate lamina c. 2 mm. long; apex obtuse. Lower lvs sts without subulate apex. Fls solitary, terminal, ± 3–4 mm. long. Sepals = corolla-tube, ovate, rather abruptly narrowed to obtuse tip. Corolla white; tube cylindric, 2–5 mm, long, lobes broad, obtuse to subacute.

[From: Allan (1961) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 1.]

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Bibliography
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Barkla J.W.; Courtney, S.P.; Champion, P.D.; Perrie, L.R.; Beadel, S.N.; Ford, K.A.; Breitwieser, I.; Schönberger, I.; Hindmarsh-Walls, R.; Heenan, P.B.; Ladley, K. 2018: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017. New Zealand Threat Classification Series. No. 22. [Not Threatened]
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Champion, P.D.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Norton, D.A.; Hitchmough, R.A. 2013: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012. New Zealand Threat Classification Series 3. Department of Conservation, Wellington. [Not Threatened]
Hooker, J.D. 1864: Handbook of the New Zealand Flora: a systematic description of the native plants of New Zealand and the Chatham, Kermadec's, Lord Auckland's, Campbell's and Macquarie's Islands. Part I. Reeve, London.
Venter, S. 2021: A taxonomic revision of the Australasian genera Dracophyllum and Richea (Richeeae: Styphelioideae: Ericaceae). Australian Systematic Botany 34: 1–205.