Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Kunzea ambigua

Flowers, spent flowers, and leaves. Photographer Don Wood, Booderee National Park, Jervis Bay Territory

Shrub. Photographer Jackie Miles

Line drawings. g. flowering branch; h. seed case; i. leaf cross section. SM Clarke, National Herbarium of Victoria, © 2021 Royal Botanic Gardens Board

Common name

Tick bush, White kunzea

Family

Myrtaceae

Where found

Dry forest, woodland, heath, and rocky stream banks. Coast and ranges. Occasionally on the tablelands. Naturalised in the ACT.

Notes

Shrub to 4 m tall. Young stems hairy. Leaves aromatic when rubbed, alternating up the stems, 0.4-1.2 cm long, 1-1.5 mm wide, concave above, keeled below, margins entire; tips pointed, surfaces hairy with fine hairs or hairless. Flowers with 5 white petals about 1.5-2.5 mm long, stamens 3-7 mm long. Flowers crowded on leafy side branches or in the axils of the upper leaves. Flowers Spring to Summer.

Hybridises with Kunzea capitata subsp. capitata.

Protected NSW.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Kunzea~ambigua  (accessed 19 January, 2021)