Family: Myrtaceae
Leptospermum laevigatum
Citation:
F. Muell., Ann. Rep. 22 (1858).
Synonymy: Fabricia laevigata Gaertner, Fruct. 1:175 (1788).
Common name: Coastal tea-tree, coast tea-tree.
Description:
Shrub or small tree, 3 m or more high, the young stems smooth; leaves flat, usually narrowly obovate and 15-30 mm long, glabrous, the apex broad-obtuse with a small point.
Flowers 15-20 mm diam., borne on short axillary shoots; bracts broad, brown and often persisting about the flowers; hypanthium usually glabrous, broad and very rounded above a very short narrow base; sepals c. 2 mm long, deltoid; petals broadly obovate, white; stamens 1.5-2.5 mm long; ovary usually 6-11-celled, with c. 15 ovules in 2 rows in each cell.
Fruit 7-8 mm diam., deciduous but a few tardily so, the outer surface turgid and becoming wrinkled; fertile seeds c. 2.5 mm long, irregularly ovate-cuneate, usually winged, their surface reticulate.
Published illustration:
Cochrane et al. (1968) Flowers and plants of Victoria, fig. 281; Costermans (1981) Native trees and shrubs of south-eastern Australia, p. 237.
Distribution:
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Naturalised on coastal dunes but perhaps native on Granite Island, Victor Harbor.
S.Aust.: EP, NL, YP, SL, KI, SE. W.Aust. (naturalised); Qld (naturalised); N.S.W.; Vic.; Tas.
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Conservation status:
naturalised
Flowering time: Aug. — Oct.
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SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia
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Biology:
No text
Author:
Not yet available
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