Woolly Tea Tree in Plant of the Week

Real World Gardener-Horticulture, Gardening, Learning to Grow

Scientific name: Leptospermum lanigerum Common Name: Woolly tea tree Family: Myrtaceae Etymology: leptos, meaning slender, and sperma, meaning seed.

lanigerum, is named using the Latin word for wool-bearing, describing the silky hairy leaves and hairy buds, shoots and young capsules.

Height: 3m by 3m wide Location: any soil in sun and will tolerate heavy shade. Frost hardy to -7C Description: Dense shrub to small erect tree with persistent fibrous bark on larger stems, smaller stems shedding in stringy strips.

• Not all tea trees have green leaves, and this one has pewter grey or silver tiny leaves with typical 5 petalled tea tree flowers.
• May be limbed into a small tree. Light summer water though very drought adapted. Excellent background shrub or screen or large informal hedge.

Takes well to pruning as the leaves are tiny and the more you prune the bush will become more dense. Listen to the podcast to find out more I'm talking with Adrian O’Malley, native plant expert and officianado