An evergreen shrub up to 3 ft high, of lax habit; young shoots glabrous; leaf-buds without sinus. Leaves 1⁄4 to over 1 in. apart on the branchlets, scarcely or not stalked, narrowly oblong to narrowly lanceolate, 1 to 21⁄4 in. long, 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 in. wide. Flowers produced in slender cylindrical racemes 2 to 3 in. long from the terminal leaf-axils. Corolla white, small, scarcely 1⁄4 in. wide, with a funnel-shaped tube shorter than the calyx and four spreading pointed lobes. Calyx deeply divided into four lobes of ovate-lanceolate shape, pointed and often minutely downy on the margins. Blossoms in July and August.
Native of the North Island of New Zealand. Related to H. salicifolia which has leaf-buds with a distinct sinus, much larger, more slenderly pointed leaves, racemes much longer, the corolla-tube longer than the calyx, and is altogether a stronger, bigger shrub.