Thryptomene calycina (Lindl.) Stapf

Grampians heath myrtle, Grampians thryptomene

Australia: Victoria.

Widely grown in Australia and used in the cut-flower trade; less commonly cultivated in New Zealand. A few pink- or white-flowered cultivars have been sold in New Zealand, including T. calycina ‘Parry’s Pink’, ‘Pratt’s Pink’ and ‘Taylors White’.

Recorded from New Plymouth, Whanganui and Wellington in the North Island, and Nelson and Richmond in the South Island; grown in gardens, parks and botanical gardens. Likely to be more widespread in cities and towns of warmer regions of New Zealand, but under-recorded.

• Flowers small, ± 2 mm in diam.
• Lower leaf surfaces keeled towards the tips.
• Leaves alternate.
• Petals and sepals similar.
• Stamens very short.
• Fruit a unilocular nut.

Shrubs up to 3 m tall.

Bark pale, smooth. Young branchlets and stems hairless, 4-angled.

Leaves opposite, leathery, oblong to obovate, upper and lower surface glossy green, upper leaf surface flat, lower leaf surface keeled, upper and lower surfaces hairless, gland-dotted, midrib not raised; margins entire; tips rounded, sometimes with recurved point; leaf stalks absent.

Flowers paired in leaf axils, near and at tips of branches. Flowers ± 2 mm in diam., flower stalks ± 2–6 mm long, petals 5, white (but often tinted pink in buds), hairless on the outside; sepals 5, like petals, white or pale pink, tips free, hairless; stamens very short. Main flowering period: winter and spring.

Fruit a nut, 1-locular, ± 4–6 mm wide.

The combination of small flowers coupled with similar sepals and petals, short stamens and nuts diagnose this species with ease in New Zealand.

Thryptomene calycina is susceptible to myrtle rust (caused by Austropuccinia psidii).

Several pink or white-flowered cultivars of T. saxicola, including ‘Rosea’ and ‘Supanova’, are available from a few New Zealand nurseries and grown in parks and gardens. However, these, like T. calycina cultivars, are likely to be relatively uncommon.

Thryptomene is a genus of about 47 species endemic to Australia.

• Australian’s Flora: Growing Native Plants
• GBIF
• iNaturalist NZ
• VicFlora: Flora of Victoria