In the UK, all flora databases refer to Olearia macrodonta as the NZ mountain holly but I cannot find a reference on NZPCN. Is there an easy explanation for this? Any advice would be much appreciated. John
HI John, I've seen this for sale at Pukerau Nursery, I believe it is a natural hybrid between O. ilicifolia and something else. Perhaps contact Arne Cleland and ask him?
Jesse is correct the correct name is now Oleara xmacrodontata (i.e. a nothotaxon) and it is believed to be of the parentage O. abrorescens x O. ilicifolia.
Thanks, I wonder if NZPCN should publish a guide to the NZ hybrids, or at least the common ones? UK has just published a volume with 908 hybrids, see: http://www.bsbi.org.uk/Flyer_2.pdf This is very useful indeed. Thank you both again. John
Nice idea John but wholly impractical at this stage as I am sure you will appreciate if you think about it carefully. For a start the U.K. and Europe has a good 100 - 150 years advance on our knowledge (heck we haven't even got a revised Flora I yet). Also the U.K. flora is being constantly picked over by a much larger force of botanists than we have in Australasia. Finally we need to be clear about what are established hybrids and putative ones - we have plenty of putative hybrids postulated but very few have been confirmed as valid combinations.
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