Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Kunzea capitata

Flowering stems. Photographer Don Wood, Jervis Bay National Park, NSW

Flowering stems. Photographer Don Wood, Twelve Mile Road, Morton National Park

Shrub. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Peter Ollerenshaw, Mt Victoria, Blue Mountains

Common name

Heath kunzea

Family

Myrtaceae

Where found

Dry forest, woodland, heath, rocky areas, and temporarily swampy areas. Coast, ranges, and the eastern edge of the tablelands mainly north of Bawley Point. Occasional coastal sightings farther south.

subsp. capitata:  On sandy soils, mainly in heath, and often associated with temporarily swampy areas..

subsp. seminuda:  Usually associated with sandstone outcrops and often growing on shallow soil on rock platforms. Open areas in woodland to forest, or in heath-like scrub.

Where the two subspecies overlap, they intergrade, e.g. Kings Tableland, Carrington Falls, and south of Sassfras to Tianjara Falls.

The description above is mostly taken from: Toelken, H.R. (15 December 2016), Revision of Kunzea (Myrtaceae). 2. Subgenera Angasomyrtus and Salisia (section Salisia) from Western Australia and subgenera Kunzea and Niviferae (sections Platyphyllae and Pallidiflorae) from eastern Australia. Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens 29: 103-108, Figs. 9, 10

Notes

Shrub to 2 m tall. Young stems hairy, occasionally hairless. Leaves aromatic when rubbed, alternating up the stems, 0.3-0.9 cm long, 1.5-4.5 mm wide, with 3 main longitudinal veins, tips pointed to blunt and with a curved mucro, surfaces hairy to hairless, margins sometimes hairy. Flowers with 5 white or pink to purple petals each 1-1.5 mm long, in head-like clusters. Stamens 3.5-4.5 mm long. Flowers Winter to Spring.

Protected NSW.

subsp. capitata:  Sepals and upper parts of the hypanthium both usually distinctly hairy; leaves mostly with conspicuously warty margins.

Hybridises with Kunzea ambigua and Kunzea rupestris.

subsp. seminuda:  Sepals and upper parts of the hypanthium hairless or markedly less hairy than the lower parts; leaves with smooth or faintly warty margins.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Kunzea~capitata  (accessed 2 May 2021)