Family: Myrtaceae
Leptospermum
Citation:
Forster & Forster. f., Char. Gen. Pl. 71:t. 36 (1776).
Derivation: Greek leptos, slender; sperma, seed; alluding to the narrow seeds of the type species.
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: Tea-trees.
Description:
Shrubs or slender trees with alternate simple entire leaves.
Flowers on short side-shoots; bracts imbricate; hypanthium glabrous, silky or villous, broad-based or tapering to a stalk-like base; sepals 5, persistent or deciduous; petals 5, usually obovate and often somewhat clawed; stamens in 5 bundles each with the central stamen opposite the petal and the lateral stamens arranged along the edge of the hypanthium to the centre of each neighbouring sepal; anthers versatile, with a small gland behind 2 parallel or divergent cells that open by slits; ovary inferior, with 2 to many cells; the placentas peltate, on the upper part of the central axis and bearing few to many spreading or pendulous anatropous ovules; style simple, the stigma entire or somewhat lobed.
Fruit a capsule opening at the top, the valves stiff and sometimes very woody; seeds linear-cuneate or ovate-cuneate, the testa longitudinally striate or reticulate, occasionally extended to form a ridge or wing.
Distribution:
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About 80 species; most Australian (one of these extending to New Zealand) but several found between Thailand and New Guinea.
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Biology:
No text
Uses:
Some species are grown as ornamentals.
Key to Species:
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1. Fruit persisting for several seasons, the valves very woody, the seeds linear |
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2. Leaves with margins incurved and often scabrous, and apex long-tapering |
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L. sp 1. |
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2. Leaves with margins recurved, rarely flat, and apex rather abruptly tapering |
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L. lanigerum 5. |
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1. Fruit deciduous, rarely persisting beyond one season, the valves scarcely woody, the seeds not linear |
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3. Young stems tuberculate; fruit with a slender stalk-like base |
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L. fastigiatum 3. |
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3. Young stems smooth; fruit with the base broad and rounded |
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4. Leaves flat, with smooth margins; stamens almost the length of the sepals |
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5. Leaves acute to obtuse, usually acuminate; fruit usually 4-7- celled |
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L. coriaceum 2. |
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5. Leaves with a broad rounded apex; fruit usually 6-1 l-celled L. laevigatum 4 |
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4. Leaves with the margins incurved and minutely tuberculate; stamens much longer than the short sepals |
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L. myrsinoides 6. |
Author:
Prepared by J. Thompson
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