Facts about Olearia hectorii
Olearia hectorii
Description
Olearia hectorii or Hectors tree daisy is deciduous, up to 9.5m tall, with deeply furrowed, cork-like bark on the trunk and older branches.
Young branches and branchlets are smooth-barked and bronze-red with four ribs that produce a squarish cross-section.
Leaves are arranged in clusters of opposite pairs. They're a pale moss-green colour and roughly oval in shape. Flowers are in clusters of two to six, any time between October to early December, and can begin before the new leaves appear.
Similar plants
Having largish leaves means that within the Olearia group, O. hectorii only has similarities with Olearia fragrantissima. In winter its leafless state, form and bark are similar to elderberry. It is also often associated with lowland ribbonwood and kowhai.
Habitat
Olearia hectorii primarily occupies wet, cold valley floors and hill slopes, often where mountain and hill-country streams disgorge onto the plains.
It also occurs as a riparian and forest margin species in some lowland areas, appearing to favour open sites that either are or were canopy gaps in primary forest margins and streamsides.
It relies on natural disturbance - flooding, sedimentation and erosion - to provide seeding sites. It can live for up to 150 years and it supports at least 22 moth species.
Distribution
Olearia hectorii is restricted to the eastern South Island, after North Island populations were renamed Olearia gardneri.
O. hectorii's distribution is disjunct or discontinuous, occuring in Marlborough, then South Canterbury and throughout Otago and Southland.
Historical records show it previously occured in the gaps of its South Island distribution including eastern and southern Nelson and Northern Marlborough.
Population size
Total population size is approximately 4500 individuals, from approximately 90 sites. The largest population occurs in Marlborough's Clarence catchment, where approximately 2000 plants are known.
Two other relatively large populations consist of 600 plants in the Matukituki Valley and 300 plants in Southland's Upper Waikaia Valley.
Regeneration and recruitment is occuring are more-or-less absent in Canterbury, Otago and Southland, at least over the last few decades, but occurs in Marlborough.
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