Melicytus alpinus

Drainage: Very Dry Well Drained Growth: Slow Height Range: 1 Site Conditions: Frost Tolerant Loamy Soil Sandy Soil Windy Spread Range: 1 Sunlight: Full Sun Features: Alpine Attractive foliage Attractive to insects Divaricating Evergreen Rare and Endangered Suitable for Revegetation Species Category: Herbaceous Tag: Lizards

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a dense hummocky alpine/rock garden plant. Also called porcupine shrub after its thick spines. Slow-growing in coastal or alpine areas of southern North Island and the South Island it looks almost leafless. But most of the leaves are sheltered between the stiff interlacing stems as an adaptation to the harsh environment where the plant grows. Leaves are variable, leathery and about 1cm long. In spring and early summer, small white flowers turn into tasty fragrant white, blue-specked fruit eaten by many native New Zealand lizards.

endimic to New Zealand. It can also be found in coastal areas with saline, dry soils, with very little st...