Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Melichrus urceolatus

Flowering stems. Photographer Don Wood, near Mongarlowe east of Braidwood

Leaves and ripe fruit. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, near Numeralla east of Cooma

Flowering shrub. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, ACT

Common name

Urn heath

Family

Ericaceae

Where found

Dry forest, woodland, shrubland, grassland, and rocky areas. Widespread. No coastal records south of Jervis Bay.

Notes

Shrub to 1.5 m high. Branchlets hairy, with prominent leaf scars. Leaves crowded, 0.6–2.5 cm long, 1.5–6.2 mm wide, hairless to rough, deeply 6–12-ribbed on the lower surface, margins narrow-translucent, toothed to rough, bases sometimes more or less sheathing. Flowers white, cream, or yellow-green, tubular, the tube urn-shaped, 2–10 mm long, with 5 lobes 2–4 mm long, sparsely hairy. Flowers crowded. Flowers produce plentiful nectar. Flowering: March–November. Fruit greenish white, reddish, or purple to brown.

Family was Epacridaceae.

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=Melichrus~urceolatus (accessed 24 January, 2021)