Dracophyllum longifolium

This species has the following varieties:[7]

• Dracophyllum longifolium var. longifolium
• Dracophyllum longifolium var. septentrionale

In a 1952 supplement of the Trans. Proc. R. Soc. N. Z., W. R. B. Oliver published a revised taxonomic arrangement of the genus Dracophyllum which he had first attempted in 1928. In this supplement he placed D. longifolium in a group with D. oliveri within the subgenus Oreothemanus. Oliver, however, conducted his research based purely on morphological characteristics such as growth habit, leaves, and flowers. In 2010 a team of several botanists, including Stephanus Venter, published an article on the genus Dracophyllum in the Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden. In it they performed a cladistic analysis and produced a phylogenetic tree of the tribe Richeeae and other species using genetic sequencing. They found that only the subgenus Oreothamnus as well as the tribe Richeeae were monophyletic. The paraphylly 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.[8][9] 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.[10] D. longifolium's placement can be summarised in the cladogram at right.