Chamelaucium uncinatum Schauer

Geraldton wax, Geraldton wax flower, Geraldton wax plant

Australia: coastal areas, swamps, hillsides and plains in south-western Western Australia.

In New Zealand almost exclusively found in cultivation; only a few records of it self-establishing. Several cultivars have been selected on the basis of flower colour.

Scattered records from mainly urban areas in the North Island of New Zealand.

• Leaves 1 mm wide.
• Leaf tips hooked.
• Stamens 10, alternating with staminodes.
• Style not longer than petals.
• Style with ring of hairs below stigma.
• Sepal lobes short.
• Fruit 1-locular.

Shrub to about 3 m tall.

Bark dark and furrowed. Branchlets with hairs.

Adult leaves opposite, linear to three-sided (when dry),15–30(–40) mm long, 1 mm wide, hairless; leaf surfaces not puckered, glandular dots present; margins entire; tips hooked; leaf stalks absent or short. Highly aromatic when crushed.

Flowers produced in terminal clusters, flowers 15–20 mm in diam., with dark red, cup-shaped centre (hypanthium); flower stalks present; petals 5, orbicular, spreading, ± 5–6 mm in diam., usually pale to mid pink, ranging from white to purple/red; sepals 5, tips short, free, glandular; stamens 10 alternating with staminodes, white, shorter than petals, anthers yellow-brown; style shorter than petals, with ring of hairs below stigma. Main flowering period: late winter, spring and summer.

Fruit dry, 1-locular, ± 5 mm wide.

Chamelaucium uncinatum is the only species in the genus that is cultivated in New Zealand.

Chamelaucium is a genus of more than 10 described species and many undescribed taxa. All are shrubs endemic to south-western Western Australia.

• CitSciHub
• Flora of New Zealand Online
• GBIF
• iNaturalist NZ
• NZPCN
• Weeds of Australia: Biosecurity Queensland