Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Leptospermum laevigatum
Common name
Coast tea-tree
Family
Myrtaceae
Where found
Heath and occasionally dry forest on sand. Dunes and coastal cliffs. Coastal.
Plants recorded in the Sydney area well inland from beaches, and on the Great Western Highway in the Blue Mountains, are probably planted/naturalised.
Notes
Shrub or tree to 6 m tall. Bark on smaller stems smooth or becoming rough; bark on older stems usually rough, shedding in strips. Younger stems hairy, becoming hairless, with a groove near the bases of the leaf stalks. Leaves aromatic when rubbed, alternating up the stems, 1.5-3 cm long, 5-10 mm wide, broadest above the middle, flat, surfaces grey to grey-green, hairless or becoming hairless; tips blunt with a small point and often folded upwards; bases tapering to a short rather flattened stalk. Flowers usually 15-20 mm in diameter, with 5 white petals. Flowers usually in pairs. Flowers Winter to Spring. Nuts with 6-11 slits in the top, usually 7-8 mm in diameter, with a slightly fleshy outer surface, usually shed early but sometimes tardily so.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Leptospermum~laevigatum (accessed 12 January, 2021)
Additional information in: Thompson, J. (8 December 1989), A revision of the genus Leptospermum (Myrtaceae). Telopea 3(3): 372-373, map 4-24
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