Description
Olearia bullata occurs in wetlands throughout the country and is often found in wetter upland shrubland. These shrubland areas occur on sites that were formerly forest. O. bullata can be found in stands of Mānuka with Coprosma propinqua, C. rugosa, and Charmichaelia torulosa.
Olearia bullata is a bushy greyish shrub with wide-angled interlacing reddish twigs. The shrub bears wrinkled narrow rolled leaves that are white underneath. It has small white flowers in clusters that produce fluffy seeds. It supports a wide variety of invertebrates (spiders, insects, crustaceans, millipedes, snails and worms). Small-leaved divaricating Olearia species support a complex array of lichens, mosses and algae on their twigs and stems. These are food for the larvae of 41 moth species known only in New Zealand.
