Leptospermum rupestre

Location & distribution maps

Phylogeny & links to associated information:

Wikipedia links:       Angiosperms > Eudicots > Rosids >  Myrtaceae > Leptospermum  rupestre

Other links:     

Plant  information

Common name:         Alpine Tea Tree

• Also, prostrate tea-tree

Conservation status: ...

Etymology:   

• The word rupestre is derived from the Latin word rupestris, meaning rocky, referring to the habitat where it was found

Flowers

• The white flowers are small 1 cm wide, 5 petalled

• Has an open habit and flower in profusion in leaf axils during summer

Fruit:                            

• The small seed capsules are about 5 mm in diameter

Leaves:         

• It has small, blunt, shiny dark green, oval to elliptic shaped leaves, 2–9 mm long

Stem & branches: 

• The reddish branches become mat-forming over rocks

Roots:         

Habit:        

• A common alpine and subalpine shrub in Tasmania

  • The growth habit varies, at higher exposed altitudes it is a prostrate plant up to 1 m high

  • At lower altitudes it can become a large shrub to 4 m high

Habitat:   

• Found growing in a sunny situation on light to medium soils

Distribution:                  

• Endemic to Tasmania

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy and naming

  • It was first formally described in 1840 by botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker 

  • The description was published in Icones Plantarum

  • Robert Brown observed it growing on rocky outcrops on Mount Wellington and nearby mountains

Sources of information:

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