Re: Mystery Plant

Julius & Beverly Elischer wrote:
> 
> Barry Garcia wrote:
> >
> > Hi all,
> >        i'm hoping someone knows what the plant in the attached picture
> > is. All i know is its pretty much a weed around here. and seeds
> > readily. But i do not know what it is.
> 
> Oh boy Barry, you will get a response on that one. What a lot of bother
> a picture saves, especially if it is something as well known as a
> Leptospermum - of which there are over 70 species ranging from S.E. Asia
> to New Zealand, with about 40 in Australia. Someone will probably be
> able to pinpoint the particular plant you have there. Commonly known as
> tea-tree (or ti-tree). The problem with these common names is that some
> Meleleucas are also called tea-tree, including the plant which produces
> the well-known tea-tree oil.
> 
Beverly

Leptospermum was my immediate reaction too, based on the flowers, but I
am not familar with enough of the Australian species to narrow it down
further. All I can say is the leaves look too wide for ordinary        
L scoparium.

Incidently, someone was pointing out only yesterday that while _tea_tree
is correct (because L scoparium was once used as a tea substitute) Ti
should not be used for Leptospermums, as it is correctly a name for the
Polynesian Cordyline.

As you say some Melaleucas are hard to distinguish from Leptospermum,
such as our native Kanuka, which used to be L ericoides, but is now
transferred to Melaleuca (unfortunately, like me, my reference books are
aging and none gives this name change, so i can't tell you what
species..

Moira

-- 
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata, 
New Zealand (astride the "Ring of Fire" in the SW Pacific).
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