Where found:

• Coastal, marginal to salt swamp or sandy gravelly banks, extending inland by estuaries
  
• This shrub and the mangrove are the only NZ trees or shrubs that can survive with roots in slightly salty (brackish) water
  

• Erect deciduous shrub with tightly interlaced branches
  
• Narrow, thick, leathery leaves are alternate in small bunches on short branches, young leaves are larger (20-30 mm x 3.5 mm) than adult leaves (5-20 mm x .5-4 mm)
  
• Flowers (up to 5 mm diameter) are small, greenish cream and occur solitary along the branches, they have a strong sweet smell, flowering from September to November
  
• Fruit are small rounded (5 mm across), hairy and a greenish-brown, on the shrub from December to March
  
• Dark reddish-brown bark