Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Kunzea ericoides

Flowers and leaves. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, ACT

Flowering branches. Photographer Don Wood, just outside Wadbilliga National Park

Shrub. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Scottsdale Bush Heritage Reserve near Bredbo

Common name

Burgan

Family

Myrtaceae

Where found

Forest, woodland, heath, grassy areas, and along streams and moist areas. Weedy after natural vegetation is cleared for grazing (personal communication from Roger Farrow, 25 January, 2021). Widespread.

Notes

Shrub to 5 m tall. Young stems hairy. Leaves aromatic when rubbed, alternating up the stems, 0.6-2.5 cm long, 1-4.5 mm wide, tips pointed, surfaces hairy with fine hairs to hairless. Flowers to 9 mm in diameter, with 5 white petals 1.5-3 mm long, crowded on leafy side branches or in the axils of the upper leaves. Stamens 1-4 mm long. Flowers Spring to Autumn. Forms extensive stands after fire.

PlantNET notes thar Kunzea ericoides in the strict sense is a New Zealand species. In eastern Australia, the name has been applied to a very diverse range of plants that vary in habit, leaf shape, hairiness and branching. No taxonomic resolution of the Australian populations has been made yet. 

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