Leptospermum obovatum
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New article for Trees and Shrubs Online.
Recommended citation
'Leptospermum obovatum' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Synonyms
- Leptospermum flavescens var. obovatum (Sweet) Benth.
Editorial Note
Bean treated this species under the name Leptospermum flavescens subsp. obovatum.
A tall evergreen shrub with leaves 1⁄4 to 5⁄8 in. long, 1⁄8 to 1⁄4 in. wide, almost uniformly obovate, except that some are rather wider in proportion to their length than others and they are very frequently notched at the apex, the base wedge-shaped. Flowers scarcely stalked, white, 5⁄8 in. wide, opening in July, solitary on short twigs or in the leaf-axils; calyx glabrous. It was figured by Sweet in his Flora Australasica, t. 36, published in 1828, as ‘L. obovatum’.
There is a fine bush of this in the garden at Sheffield Park, Sussex, which grows outside and was 10 ft high when I saw it in 1928. Sweet mentions that the plant figured in Flora Australasica (1828) was raised in the nursery of Messrs Whitley, Brames & Milne at Fulham, from seed sent by a Mr C. Frazer from New South Wales. He observes that the plant will ‘without doubt stand our winters very well in the open air with a slight covering in severe frost’. Its distinguishing characters are its five-celled ovary, its glabrous calyx-tube, and its notch-ended leaves. Besides New South Wales, this shrub is also wild in Victoria, Queensland, and Tasmania.