Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Leionema lamprophyllum

Flowers (subnsp. obovatum). Photographer Jackie Miles.

Flowering stems (subsp. obovatum). Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Australian Botanic Gardens, Canberra, ACT

Seed cases and leafy branches. Photographer Jackie Miles.

Shrub (subsp. obovatum). Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, ACT

Common name

Shiny phebalium, Leionema

Family

Rutaceae

Where found

Forest, woodland, heath, shrubland, rocky ridges, and along streams.

subsp. obovatum:  ACT and west towards Tumut. Rarely coastal south of Eden.

subsp. orbiculare:  Blue Mountains to west of Lithgow, and the mountains to the north.

Notes

Shrub to 2 m high. Stems more or less angled when young, becoming cylindrical, warty, minutely hairy with stellate and simple hairs, or hairless. Leaves alternating up the stems, 0.2–1 cm long, 2–7 mm wide, aromatic when rubbed, somewhat leathery to papery, wedge-shaped to round, tips pointed to rounded, upper surface with the midrib impressed or not, leaves flat, hairless, shiny, margins entire or appearing nibbled near the tips. Flowers white, white with pink tips on the outside, or wholly pink, with 5 petals each 2–4 mm long. Calyx fleshy. Flowers in clusters of 1–3, several clusters together. Flowering: winter to early summer.

subsp. obovatum:  Leaves more or less oval, 2–10 mm long

Rare Vic.

subsp. orbiculare:  Leaves more or less round, 2–6 mm long.

PlantNET description of species and key to subspecies:   http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Leionema~lamprophyllum  (accessed 22 January, 2021)