Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Leptospermum sphaerocarpum

Flowering stems. Photographer Greg Steenberke, Marrangaroo, near Lithgow

Common name

A tea-tree

Family

Myrtaceae

Where found

Forest and heath on ridges or escarpments, especially on sandstone. Ranges and the eastern edge of the tablelands north from Blackheath.

Notes

Shrub to 2 m high. Leaves with sharp tips. Bark rough. Younger stems usually hairy. Leaves aromatic when rubbed, alternating up the stems, mostly 0.5–2 cm long and 2–5 mm wide, thick, margins flat, curved down or curved upwards, surfaces more or less hairless; bases broadly or narrowly tapering to a short thick stalk. Flowers single, 10–20 mm in diameter, with 5 greenish white or pink petals, single. Flowers Spring. Nuts persistent, usually 7–10 mm in diameter.

PlantNET description:   http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Leptospermum~sphaerocarpum  (accessed 22 January, 2021)

Additional information in: Thompson, J. (8 December 1989), A revision of the genus Leptospermum (Myrtaceae). Telopea 3(3): 433-434, map 9-73