Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Leptospermum myrtifolium
Common name
Myrtle tea-tree, Grey tea-tree, Swamp tea-tree
Family
Myrtaceae
Where found
Forest, woodland, paddocks, swamp margins, gullies, and occasionally along rocky streams. Widespread. Rare in coastal areas and on the Western Slopes.
Notes
Shrub to 3 m tall. Bark on smaller stems smooth, shedding in stringy strips, on larger stems rough, ultimately flaking in layers. Younger stems hairy, with a groove or narrow to thick flange below the bases of the leaf stalks. Leaves aromatic when rubbed, alternating up the stems, 0.4-1 cm long, 2-5 mm wide, thick, surfaces with silky hairs giving a grey-green appearance; sometimes hairless, glands prominent, margins flat to curved upwards, tips pointed to broadly rounded, and flat or curved down and folded upwards; bases tapering to a thick stalk less than 1 mm long. Flowers 7-11 mm in diameter, with 5 white petals, usually single, occasionally in pairs. Flowers Spring to Autumn. Nuts often long-persisting, usually 4-6 mm in diameter, the surface lifting, later gnarled.
Hybridises with Leptospermum continentale.
All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Leptospermum~myrtifolium (accessed 22 January, 2021)
Additional information in: Thompson, J. (8 December 1989), A revision of the genus Leptospermum (Myrtaceae). Telopea 3(3): 409-411, map 8-53
This identification key and fact sheets are available as a free mobile application:
