Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Leptospermum myrsinoides
Common name
Heath tea-tree, Silky tea-tree
Family
Myrtaceae
Where found
Dry forest, woodland, and heath, sometimes in swampy soils. Coast and ranges south of Eden.
Notes
Shrub to 2.5 m tall. Bark on smaller stems smooth, shedding in stringy strips, rough on larger stems. Stems hairy, becoming hairless. Leaves aromatic when rubbed, alternating up the stems, 0.3-1.3 cm long, 1-4 mm wide, margins curved upwards and usually covered with minute warts (needs a hand lens or a macro app on your phone/tablet to see), surfaces becoming hairless; tips pointed, the point blunt and tending to curve down; bases tapering to a short stalk. Flowers 10-15 mm in diameter, with 5 white or pink petals, single or paired. Flowers Winter to Summer. Nuts shed early, sometimes tardily so, 4-6 mm in diameter.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Leptospermum~myrsinoides (accessed 22 January, 2021)
Additional information in: Thompson, J. (8 December 1989), A revision of the genus Leptospermum (Myrtaceae). Telopea 3(3): 369, map 4-21
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