Correa glabra

Location & distribution maps

Phylogeny & links to associated information:

Wikipedia links:       Angiosperms  > Eudicots > Rosids >  Sapindales > Rutaceae  > Correa  glabra

Other links:    

Plant  information

Common name:                Rock Correa  

Conservation status:  . . .

Etymology:   

Flowers:                  

• The flowers are pendent and usually arranged singly on short side shoots on a pedicel 2–4 mm long with linear to lance-shaped bracteoles 4–7 mm long

• The calyx is 3–10 mm long and the corolla is pale green to pale yellow, cylindrical to funnel-shaped and 15–40 mm long

• The eight stamens extend well beyond the end of the corolla

• Flowering occurs sporadically throughout the year but mainly in autumn and winter

Fruit:                         

Leaves:         

• The leaves are elliptical to sometimes egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, papery to leathery

• 10–40 mm long and 5–17 mm wide

•  A strong, sweet lemon scent when crushed

Stem & branches: 

Roots:         

Habit:        

• A tall, erect shrub that typically grows to a height of 2.7 m

Habitat:   

Distribution:                  

• Endemic to Australia

• Rock correa is found in south-eastern Queensland, NSW, western Victoria and westwards to the Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia

  • Variety glabra is found in south-eastern Queensland, New South Wales and central and western Victoria where it mainly grows in rocky habitats near watercourses

  • Variety leucoclada, commonly known as the white-stemmed smooth correa, grows in hilly situations along stream banks in the southern Mount Lofty Ranges and in central and eastern NSW; it is rare in South Australia but common in NSW

  • Variety turnbullii, commonly known as Turnbull's smooth correa, grows in the rocky hills of the Mount Lofty and Flinders Ranges, the Murraylands and part of the south-east of South Australia

Species:                     

• Three varieties are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:

  • Correa glabra Lindl. var. glabra, has leaves that are more or less glabrous, a hemispherical calyx and pale green or yellow flowers

  • Correa glabra var. leucoclada has leaves that are densely woolly hairy on the lower surface, a cup-shaped to shortly cylindrical calyx and pale green or yellow flowers

  • Correa glabra var. turnbullii has red flowers with green lobes

  • Variety turnbullii was originally described by Edwin Ashby who gave it the name Correa turnbullii but Paul G. Wilson reduced it to a variety of C. glabra in 1998; Wilson considered C. schlechtendalii of Behr to be a synonym of var. turnbullii 

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy

• Correa glabra was first formally described in 1838 by botanist John Lindley in Thomas Mitchell's journal, Three Expeditions into the interior of Eastern Australia

• Use in horticulture

  • May be used as a low screening shrub or as a container plant, and will attract birds to a garden

  • It will grow in a variety of soil types in sunny or partially shaded situations and withstands frost

  • It can be maintained to a compact shape by pinching back new growth

  • A number of cultivars have been recorded, including:

    • Corea glabra var. glabra 'Coliban River' — a compact, dense form selected from a wild population near the Coliban River in Kyneton, Victoria.; it grows to 1.2 m in height and width

    • C. glabra 'Apricot'

    • C. glabra var. turnbullii '

    • C. glabra 'Gold Leaf'

    • C. glabra var. turnbullii 'Ian Fardon'

    • C. glabra var. glabra 'Inglewood Gold' — a form with gold flowers selected from a wild population near Inglewood, Victoria around 1980

    • C. glabra 'Studley Park'

    • C. glabra var. leucoclada 'Tambar Springs'

Sources of information:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correa_glabra (2023)