Olearia rani

Olearia rani (A.Cunn.) Druce (Asteraceae), the heketara or New Zealand tree daisy, is an endemic small evergreen tree or large shrub of New Zealand, occurring in lowland and lower montane forest of the North Island and the northern South Island. Plants reach 4-8 m tall with slender trunks and slightly drooping branches. The alternate, simple leaves are ovate to broadly elliptic, 6-15 cm long, with coarsely toothed margins, thin texture, dark green and glabrous above and densely covered with a soft white to buff tomentum beneath that catches the light when foliage moves. In spring the canopy is conspicuously laden with broad, much-branched terminal corymbs of small white daisy-like flower heads about 1 cm across; each head bears several ray florets around a yellow disc and is sweetly fragrant, attracting many native insects. Achenes are small, ribbed and topped by a fawn-coloured pappus. It grows along forest margins, in regenerating bush and on streamsides.