Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Print Fact Sheet

Leptospermum petersonii

Common name

Lemon-scented teatree

Family

Myrtaceae

Where found

Near wet forest or rainforest, along streams, and on rocky escarpments. Coast and ranges north from the Sydney region.

Notes

Shrub or small tree to 5 m high or more. Bark on smaller stems smooth, shedding in stringy strips, fibrous, flaky, and rough on larger stems. Younger stems hairy, soon hairless. A conspicuous wide flange around each leaf base and extending down the stem. Leaves aromatic when rubbed, often strongly lemon-scented, alternating up the stems, usually 2–4 cm long, 2–5 mm wide, margins flat or curved down, surfaces mostly hairless; tips usually rounded with a small notch; bases tapering; stalkless. Flowers 10–15 mm in diameter, with 5 white petals, usually single, rarely two together. Flowers mostly Summer. Nuts about 6 mm in diameter, surface flaking, persisting on slender branches but not on old wood.

PlantNET description:   http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Leptospermum~petersonii  (accessed 25 January, 2021)

Additional information in: Thompson, J. (8 December 1989), A revision of the genus Leptospermum (Myrtaceae). Telopea 3(3): 393-395, map 6-43