Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Lissanthe strigosa
Common name
Peach Heath
Family
Ericaceae
Where found
Dry forest, woodland, shrubland, heath, and moist places. Widespread.
subsp. strigosa: Sydney area and the Blue Mountains, south to west of Wollongong
subsp. subulata: Widespread.
Notes
Shrub 1 m high or more or less sprawling. Suckers. Leaves with sharp tips. Branchlets covered with minute bristles or hairy. Leaves alternating up the stems or crowded, 0.34–1.7 cm long, 0.5–2.2 mm wide, mucronate, upper surface hairless to hairy lower surface whitish between the strongly 3-ribbed veins; margins smooth, slightly curved down. Flowers strongly scented, white to pink, occaionally red, tubular, the tube urn-shaped, 1.9–6.0 mm long, with 5 lobes 0.9–1.6 mm long, more or less hairless, often with a small tuft of hairs at the throat. Sepals often pinkish. Flowers erect, on short stalks, in clusters of 2–9. Fruit greenish to white, hairy, more or less fleshy. Flowers winter-summer.
subsp. strigosa: Leaves crowded, 0.34–0.58 cm long, 0.5–0.8 mm wide, usually with a single thick midrib on lower surface which is grooved on each side, tips 0.4–0.7 mm long. Flowers with sepals 0.8–1.1 mm long, the tube 1.9–3.2 mm long, lobes 0.9–1.2 mm long.
subsp. subulata: Leaves alternating up the stems, 0.6–1.7 cm long, 0.7–2.2 mm wide, veins strongly 3–5-ribbed and grooved on lower surface, tips 0.6–1.9 mm long. Flowers with sepals 0.9–1.6 mm long, the tube 2.3–6 mm long, lobes 1.0–1.6 mm long.
Family was Epacridaceae.
All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.
PlantNET description of species and key to subspecies: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Lissanthe~strigosa (accessed 22 January, 2021)
This identification key and fact sheets are available as a free mobile application:
