Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Prostanthera lasianthos

Flowers and leaves. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, ACT

Flowers and leaves. Photographer Don Wood, Eurobodalla National Park south of Moruya

Line drawings. j. flowering branchlet; leaves; flower. P Strickland, National Herbarium of Victoria, © 2021 Royal Botanic Gardens Board

Common name

Victorian Christmas Bush

Family

Lamiaceae

Where found

Forest, subalpine woodland, and regrowth. Mainly along watercourses, in moist gullies, and near swamps. Widespread, except for the Western Slopes. Rare on the tablelands.

Notes

Shrub or tree to 13 m high. Bark dark brown to blackish, shallowly fissured longitudinally. Stems hairless or sparsely hairy, sticky. Leaves aromatic when rubbed, opposite each other, 2.5–12 cm long, 5–32 mm wide, upper surface dark green, lower surface paler, surfaces hairless, margins usually toothed, tips pointed. Flowers white to pale mauve or bluish with purple to mauve spots in the throat, 10–15 mm long, with a bell-shaped tube, 2-lipped, with 5 lobes. Calyx 2-lobed. Flowers in large open clusters 4-12 cm long. Flowering: November–March.

Prostanthera lasianthos var. lasianthos in Vic.

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=Prostanthera~lasianthos  (accessed 28 January, 2021)