Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Nematolepis ovatifolia

Flowering stem. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Australian National Botanic Gardens nursery, Canberra, ACT

Shrub. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Colin Totterdell, Kosciuszko National Park

Common name

Ovate Phebalium

Family

Rutaceae

Where found

Woodland, heath, and rocky places. Kosciuszko National Park. One sighting in Yaouk Nature Reserve just south west of the ACT.

Notes

Shrub to 1 m high or prostrate. Stems more or less angled to cylindrical, rough, with sparse or conspicous raised warty oil glands, densely covered with silvery grey or pale rusty scurfy scales. Leaves aromatic when rubbed, alternating up the stems, 0.9–1.5 cm long, 5–10 mm wide, tips blunt to rounded, margins more or less flat, upper surface gland-dotted, hairless and glossy, lower surface silvery-scaly. Flowers white (pink outside in bud), with 5 petals, about 10 mm in diameter. Ovary scaly. Flowers in clusters of  1–3 flowers. Flowering: summer.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Nematolepis~ovatifolia (accessed 22 January, 2021)