Dracophyllum ophioliticum

D. ophioliticum grows into a decumbent shrub between 30 and 100 cm tall, though can reach 200 cm in shade, with grey and slightly fissured bark. Its leaves concentrate at the end of branches, and are sheathed in waxy light green leaf sheaths. Enclosed in the sheaths are 2–50 by 1–2.5 mm leaves which are very finely serrate, with 10–13 teeth every cm. The leaves also have tiny warts, are slightly concave shaped, and leathery, with a waxy powder covering them.^[2][3]

Flowering occurs from January through to March, producing 3–9 white flowers on each 13–28 mm (0.51–1.10 in) long rectangular raceme. The flowers themselves are made up of 4–6 by 1.5–3.0 mm (0.16–0.24 by 0.06–0.12 in) green sepals which enclose a 5.5–6.5 by 2.0–2.5 white hairless corolla. In the upper third of the corolla tube is the stamen, which is made up of a 0.1 mm long light yellow anther suspended off of a 0.5 mm long filament. In order to provide an incentive for pollination D. ophioliticum has 1.0–1.2 by 0.6–0.7 mm rectangular nectary scales.^[2][3]

The ovary is 1.5 by 1.5 mm egg-shaped and hairless, eventually leading to the creation of yellowish-brown 0.8–1.0 mm long seeds enclosed within 2.7–4.0 by 2.5–2.7 mm light brown capsules which are dispersed by the wind.^[2][3]

• 
  The growth habit
• 
  A close-up of the flowers
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  Leaves and stems

D. ophioliticum was first described by the botanist Stephanus Venter in a 2002 article in the New Zealand Journal of Botany. Before being formally described it was often confused for D. longifolium var. longifolium but Venter argued its complete lack of the latter's large juvenile leaves and caducous floral bracts set it apart. It is also similar to D. filifolium, both having similar leaves and persistent floral bracts, but can be distinguished by its many stems and decumbent growth habit as well as its leaves having warts and white hairs, among other differences.^[4]

Dracophyllum is from the genus's similarity to the species in the genus Dracaena from the Canary Islands and is from the Ancient Greek for "dragon-leaf."^[5] The specific epithet ophioliticum is Ancient Greek for "lover of serpentine" and describes the Serpentine rock which it exclusively grows on.^[6]

In a 2010 article in the Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, a team of several botanists, including Venter, used genetic evidence to perform a cladistic analysis and create a complete phylogeny of the tribe Richeeae and other closely related species. They found that only the subgenus Oreothamnus, pictured below, was monophyletic and that there was strong genetic evidence for D. ophioliticum's clade. The paraphyly of the genus Dracophyllum, as well as the polyphyly of the closely related genus Richea, they argued, suggested that a major taxonomic revision was required.^[7] Stephanus Venter revised the genus in 2021, merging the genus Richea into two subgenera, named D. Subg. Cystanthe and D. Subg. Dracophylloides, of Dracophyllum. Though he noted that because the 2010 study was based on plastid sequence data and did not attain some species with strong enough evidence, the subgenera are instead based on morphological characteristics.^[8]

D. ophioliticum's placement can be summarised in the cladogram at right.