Leptospermum lanigerum (Sol. ex Aiton) Sm.

woolly tea tree

Australia: southern New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania and south-eastern Victoria.

In New Zealand only found in cultivation; no naturalised specimens recorded.

Scattered records from mainly botanical gardens across New Zealand.

• Leaves oblong to narrowly obovate.
• Leaves grey-green, hairy below; new growth often silvery-hairy.
• Sepals persistent.
• Stamens as long as or longer than petals.
• Young fruit woolly.
• Fruit valves very woody.

Shrub or small tree to 5 m or more tall.

Stems smooth-barked, shedding in stringy strips, but fibrous on larger stems. Branchlets with hairs, becoming hairless with age.

Adult leaves alternate, oblong to narrowly obovate, 6–13(–20) mm long, ± 2–4(–8) mm wide, usually recurved, hairy at least below, leaves dull grey-green, lighter below, leaf blade flat, leaf surfaces not puckered; margins entire; apex tapering abruptly and infolded; tips blunt but with sharp point; leaf stalks absent or very short.

Flowers solitary, axillary, ± 15 mm in diam., stalked, petals 5, ± 6 mm long, white; sepals 5, 2–4 mm long, tips free, hairy on the lower surface; stamens white, as long as or longer than petals, about as long as the style. Main flowering period: spring to summer.

Fruit dry, 5-locular, ± 5–15 mm wide, initially woolly, becoming woody and hairless with age, valves becoming wider than the base.

In terms of the key, this is the only species of non-indigenous Leptospermum with obovate, dull grey-green leaves mostly less than 10 mm long.

Leptospermum lanigerum possesses variable leaf hairiness in its home range. Some plants have hairless green leaves and lack the silky, silvery-grey leaves typical of the eastern plants. The plants in New Zealand are also variable in this regard.

Leptospermum is a genus of about 87 species, mostly Australian, but extending to Malesia and New Zealand.

• GBIF
• iNaturalist NZ
• PlantNET: New South Wales Flora Online
• Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
• VicFlora: Flora of Victoria