Leptospermum morrisonii Joy Thomps.

Morrison’s tea tree

Australia: in central coastal and tableland areas of New South Wales.

The most commonly cultivated Australian Leptospermum in New Zealand; those with red-coloured foliage have been named L. morrisonii ‘Copper Sheen’, although nurseries have propagated it by both cuttings and seed. Forms with green or burgundy foliage are also available. Naturalisations have been recorded from nearby trees.

Widely known from urban parks and gardens throughout New Zealand.

• Leaves aromatic.
• Leaves often red-purple.
• Leaves to 35 mm or more long, 8 mm wide, slightly sickle-shaped.
• Sepals thin.
• Stamens in bundles.
• Fruit 5-locular, valves forming a broad high dome before opening.

Shrub or small tree to about 5 m tall.

Older stems with a firm and corrugated bark. Young branchlets and stems hairy, becoming hairless with age.

Adult leaves alternate, narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate, slightly sickle-shaped, 15–35(–62) mm long, 2–8 mm wide, flat or sometimes recurved, silky hairy at first, becoming hairless, same colour or different colours on upper and lower surfaces, new growth exposed to sunlight is often purple, leaf surfaces not puckered; margins entire; tips acute; leaf stalks absent or very short.

Flowers solitary, axillary, ± 12–15 mm in diam., stalked, petals 5, 5–7 mm long, white to greenish-cream; sepals 5, 2.5–3.5 mm long, tips free, thin, hairless, stamens white, 3.5–4.5 mm long, in bundles. Main flowering period: mid-summer.

Fruit dry, 5-locular, ± 6–10 mm wide, valves forming a broad high dome before opening, becoming woody with age.

In New Zealand, the green-leaved form of L. morrisonii is similar to L. petersonii, but the former possesses acute leaf tips and stamens 3.5 mm or longer while the latter possesses notched leaf tips and stamens 3.5 mm or shorter.

Leptospermum morrisonii ‘Copper Sheen’ with its coppery-purple coloured leaves is a popular garden plant in New Zealand. Material in New Zealand was originally misidentified and sold under the name L. nitidum ‘Copper Sheen’. It has also erroneously been referred to as L. morrisonii ‘Burgundy’, an Australian cultivar with a different origin.

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

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