''Kunzea ericoides'', commonly known as kānuka, kanuka, white tea-tree or burgan, is a tree or shrub in the myrtle

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Myrtaceae Myrtaceae, the myrtle family, is a family of dicotyledonous plants placed within the order Myrtales. Myrtle, pōhutukawa, bay rum tree, clove, guava, acca (feijoa), allspice, and eucalyptus are some notable members of this group. All speci ...

and is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. It has white or pink flowers similar to those of ''

Leptospermum ''Leptospermum'' is a genus of shrubs and small trees in the myrtle family Myrtaceae commonly known as tea trees, although this name is sometimes also used for some species of ''Melaleuca''. Most species are endemic to Australia, with the greate ...

'' and from its first formal description in 1832 until 1983 was known as ''Leptospermum ericoides''. The flowers have five

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s and up to 25

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

s which are mostly longer than the petals.

Description

''Kunzea ericoides'' is a spreading shrub or tree, sometimes growing to a height of with bark which peels in long strips and young branches which tend to droop. The leaves are variable in shape from linear to narrow elliptic or lance-shaped, long and wide with a petiole up to long. The flowers are white or pale pink, crowded on side branches or in the

axils A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, st ...

of upper leaves. The

floral cup In angiosperms, a hypanthium or floral cup is a structure where basal portions of the calyx, the corolla, and the stamens form a cup-shaped tube. It is sometimes called a floral tube, a term that is also used for corolla tube and calyx tube. It ...

is covered with soft, downy hairs and is on a

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

long. There are five triangular

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

s about long and five petals about long. There are up to 25 stamens which are , mostly longer than the petals. Flowering occurs between October and February and is followed by fruit which is a cup-shaped capsule long and wide. The capsule usually opens to release its seed when mature. ''Kunzea ericoides'' is very similar to the

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n endemics '' K. leptospermoides'' and '' K. peduncularis'' which were formerly included in ''K. ericoides''. The new status of ''K. ericoides'' follows the publication of a paper entitled "A revision of the New Zealand ''Kunzea ericoides'' (Myrtaceae) complex" by the New Zealand botanist,

Peter James de Lange Peter James de Lange (born 1966) is a New Zealand botanist. Born and schooled in Hamilton, New Zealand, he graduated from the University of Waikato as B.Sc. in biological and earth sciences, then as M.Sc. in paleoecology and tephrochronostrat ...

Taxonomy and naming

Kānuka was first formally described in 1832 by the French botanist

Achille Richard Achille Richard was a French botanist, botanical illustrator and physician (27 April 1794 in Paris – 5 October 1852). Biography Achille was the son of the botanist Louis-Claude Marie Richard (1754–1821). He was a pharmacist in the Frenc ...

who gave it the name ''Leptospermum ericoides'' from a specimen he collected in New Zealand. The description was published in ''Voyage de découvertes de l'Astrolabe - Botanique''. In 1983,

Joy Thompson Joy Thompson (born Joy Gardiner-Garden, 1923, died 2018) was an Australian botanist. Her main research areas were taxonomy and Myrtaceae. Life & Career Thompson's university studies occurred during the second world war and in university vacatio ...

changed the name to ''Kunzea ericoides'', describing the differences between ''Leptospermum'' and ''Kunzea'' in '' Telopea''. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

(''ericoides'') refers to the similarity of the habit of this species to that of '' Erica arborea''. The

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...

''-oides'' is a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

ending meaning "likeness". The taxonomic revision of the ''Kunzea ericoides'' complex identified ten species endemic to New Zealand, seven of which were new at this time. A more recent analysis of the ''Kunzea'' complex observed little genetic variation and morphological distinction between the species, questioning the evidence for ten endemic ''Kunzea'' species and suggesting further revision. ''Kānuka'' can also refer to ''

Kunzea robusta ''Kunzea robusta'', commonly known as rawirinui or kanuka, is a tree in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, and is endemic to New Zealand. It has rough, stringy, or corky bark, lance-shaped leaves that are darker on the upper surface, flowers in compa ...

'', it is a

doublet Doublet is a word derived from the Latin ''duplus'', "twofold, twice as much",