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Dracophyllum menziesii; photograph (c) John Barkla, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) John Barkla, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2010-12-31

Dracophyllum menziesii Hook.f.

Pineapple Scrub

Ericaceae · New Zealand South

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Dracophyllum menziesii Hook.f.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Hook.fil.

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Dracophyllum menziesii, photograph (c) Jeff Young, some rights reserved (CC BY)Dracophyllum menziesii, photograph (c) Mitch Van Dyke, some rights reserved (CC BY)Dracophyllum menziesii, photograph (c) Mitch Van Dyke, some rights reserved (CC BY)Dracophyllum menziesii, photograph (c) Mitch Van Dyke, some rights reserved (CC BY)Dracophyllum menziesii, photograph (c) Mitch Van Dyke, some rights reserved (CC BY)Dracophyllum menziesii, photograph (c) Benjamin Lavin, some rights reserved (CC BY) 76 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-4.1°C
Record low -12.4 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
14°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
4,253mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
8–37DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Dracophyllum menziesii, commonly known as pineapple scrub, is a species of shrub endemic to the South and Stewart Islands of New Zealand. In the heath family Ericaceae, it inhabits mountain slopes and cliffs from sea level up to 1,500 m (4,900 ft) and reaches a height of 0.5–1 m (1.6–3.3 ft). A 2017 assessment using the New Zealand Threat Classification System classified it as "Not Threatened", giving it an estimated population upwards of 100,000.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Dracophyllum menziesii", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,997 mm of 4,207 mm) takes 8 months, December to January, March to June and September to October. Mean temperature moves 9.0 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: March to April, June to July and September to December.

Rain

4,207 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,997 mm of it December to January, March to June and September to October. Wettest month December at 435 mm, driest month February at 283 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,704 mm to 5,688 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 4,253 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 4,207 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 8 to 37 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 6, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -4.1 °C, the absolute minimum -12.4 °C, 3,687 frost nights in 44 years, 83.8 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 20.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -1.4 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range -5.8 °C to 3.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 14.1 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 66 to 69% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +79 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Dracophyllum menziesii through the yearWarmest months January and February, mean daily high 14 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low -1.4 °C; 4,207 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°frost20.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-12.4° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 8–37RH 66–69%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 191 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C14 / 13–1614 / 13–1613 / 11–1510 / 8–137 / 4–105 / 1–84 / 0–85 / 1–87 / 3–98 / 5–1110 / 9–1312 / 11–15
Night °C7 / 5–118 / 5–116 / 3–104 / 1–82 / -2–6-1 / -5–5-1 / -6–4-1 / -5–41 / -3–52 / -2–64 / 0–76 / 3–9
Rain mm403 / 246–569283 / 182–391361 / 208–496330 / 212–452367 / 246–495345 / 233–454285 / 194–382314 / 211–410359 / 238–481397 / 261–535328 / 201–460435 / 252–605
DLI37 / 35–3932 / 30–3424 / 21–2616 / 13–189 / 8–118 / 6–109 / 8–1214 / 12–1721 / 18–2428 / 26–3135 / 32–3837 / 35–39
RH %67 / 64–6867 / 64–6867 / 65–7068 / 65–7169 / 65–7368 / 64–7366 / 62–7168 / 64–7268 / 65–7168 / 66–7167 / 65–6967 / 65–69
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 191 grid cells holding the 464 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2706:6951 (-45.325, 167.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -12.4 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 20.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 191 distinct grid cells holding 464 of the 464 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2706:6951 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -45.50_167.500, lapse-corrected +79 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 751 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNew Zealand South · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-44.726, 168.199 · in the densest population, 518 records (88% of those in range)
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “subalpine or subarctic” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 589 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 464 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 217 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2 km away. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. 125 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 589 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Dracophyllum menziesii, photograph 1did not loadDracophyllum menziesii, photograph 2did not loadDracophyllum menziesii, photograph 3did not loadDracophyllum menziesii, photograph 4did not loadDracophyllum menziesii, photograph 5did not loadDracophyllum menziesii, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Jeff Young, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Mitch Van Dyke, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Benjamin Lavin, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Celmisia holosericea Celmisia holosericea Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Irisa HudsonCelmisia armstrongii Celmisia armstrongii Armstrong's Mountain Daisy Photo: CC BY, Benjamin LavinAstelia linearis Astelia linearis Asteliaceae Photo: CC BY, John BarklaOurisia macrocarpa Ourisia macrocarpa Snowy mountain foxglove Photo: CC BY, John BarklaArcheria traversii Archeria traversii Ericaceae Photo: CC BY, Matt ScottCoprosma serrulata Coprosma serrulata Rubiaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Dracophyllum 16 in the reference

Dracophyllum arboreum Dracophyllum arboreum Chatham Island Grass Tree Photo: CC0, author not statedDracophyllum filifolium Dracophyllum filifolium Ericaceae Photo: CC BY, Angus CampbellDracophyllum kirkii Dracophyllum kirkii Ericaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedDracophyllum latifolium Dracophyllum latifolium Needle-leaved Neinei Photo: CC0, author not statedDracophyllum longifolium Dracophyllum longifolium Inaka Photo: CC BY, John BarklaDracophyllum milliganii Dracophyllum milliganii Ericaceae Photo: CC BY, Leon PerrieDracophyllum muscoides Dracophyllum muscoides Cushion Inaka Photo: CC BY, Irisa HudsonDracophyllum oceanicum Dracophyllum oceanicum Ericaceae Photo: CC BY, ronaveryDracophyllum pronum Dracophyllum pronum Ericaceae Photo: CC BY, BenDracophyllum prostratum Dracophyllum prostratum Ericaceae Photo: CC BY, Irisa HudsonDracophyllum recurvum Dracophyllum recurvum Curved leaf glass tree Photo: CC BY, Oscar DoveDracophyllum rosmarinifolium Dracophyllum rosmarinifolium Ericaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated all 17 ›

Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Ericaceae
Described by
Hook.f.
Native to
New Zealand South
Wild records
589 in range · 217 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF's key 4010653 is Dracophyllum menziesii Hook.fil.; the page links Kew's Dracophyllum menziesii Hook.f., and the name is cited as Kew cites it
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -45.50_167.500, lapse-corrected +79 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 8 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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