The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network

Growing on a totara branch above river bed - inland from Tolaga Bay, Gisborne,
The leaves dont look strappy enough to be Astelia sp. but that leaves me with not much to go on. The Drymoanthus gives you some scale. Plant was too high to get a better view.

Hi Malcolm, juvenile Astelia of some kind (could be what used to be Collospermum, but I would expect the base to be darker even at this size)

Thanks Mike.
Astelia hastata was what I suspected, but I dismissed it as the leaf shape appears to just be a single V rather than the M of hastata. However, I just found this http://naturewatch.org.nz/observations/2493015
which claims to be a A. hastata and has V shaped leaves too.
I'll be back in a few years and will check it out again and try to get a better view.

Asteliaceae is safer with this one (it is probably A. hastata but its too young to rule out A. solandri) - you also have Drymoanthus adversus on the right had side and the big lichen is Pseudocyphellaria coriacea.

I meant of course 'Astelia" - as we only have Astelia in the Asteliaceae in New Zealand. LOL

Thanks Peter.