Common Names: Kunzea
Taxonomy: Kingdom: Plantae; Angiosperms; Eudicots; Rosids; Myrtales; Myrtaceae; Kunzea rupestris.
Location/Environment: The Genus is Found in tropical and warm-temperate regions throughout Australia, especially in southwestern Western Australia and New Zealand. This particular species has a restricted range occurring from Maroota to Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, in the Central Coast botanical subdivision of New South Wales. It grows around rock platforms in the heath or in short to tall shrub or heathland.
Description:
There are 36-40 different species of shrubs found in the myrtle family under the Kunzea Genus. Part of the Dicotyledon plants, this species under the Myrtle family is woody and rich with essential oils, evergreen alternate to mostly opposite simple leaves usually with an entire not toothed margin. This clonal shrub growing upwards of 1.5 m high with villous or pubescent young stems, 6-11 mm long x 1.5-3 mm wide apex acute villous to more or less glabrous oblanceolate leaves blossoming into 5+ white to cream colored flower petals (ca. 1 to 1.5 mm long) with a ca. .5 mm long petiole, though some genera petals are minute or absent but breaking out in sessile head-like clusters at the end of the branches. The flower’s stamens are usually brightly colored, numerous, and very noticeable ranging about 5 mm in length. Ovary 2-locular, placentation apical; the style is 5-6 mm long, the fruit is 4-5 mm long, about 2.5 mm in diameter, indehiscent, flowering in spring. The phloem is found on both sides of the xylem. The Hypanthium is densely villous with triangular sepals that are 1 to 1.5 mm long densely covered with long shaqggy hairs. The plant is part of the same family that Myrtle, allspice, clove, guava, feijoa, and eucalyptus belongs to. The Genus was named after the professor of Botany, German naturalist Gustav Kunze in Leipzig. This species is considered a vulnerable species.
Cultivation:
Unknown.
Common Uses:
Unknown.
Culinary:
Unknown.
Medicinal:
This plant is rich in essential oils.
Folklore and Magic:
Unknown.
Mythology:
Unknown.
NOTE: This article is in constant state of research, updating, and evolution. If you have information to add, please submit to [email protected]
Photos from:
Australian National Botanical Gardens*
Canberra, Australia Capital Territory, Australia *
Bibliography and Recommended Reading:
- Absolute Astronomy ~ Myrtaceae; by unknown author; notes taken from web site in 2011; Absolute Astronomy; www.absoluteastronomy.com.
- Australian National Botanical Gardens ~ Kunzea rupestris; by unknown author; notes take from web site in 2011; ANBG: www.anbg.gov.au.
- Australian Native Plants Society ~ Kunzea rupestris; by unknown author; notes taken from web site in 2011; ANPSA; www.anpsa.org.au.
- Eliot, R.W.; Jones, D.L.; Blake, T. 1993 “Enclyclopedia of Australian Plants Suitable for Cultivation: Volume 6 (K-M). Lothian Press: Melbourne.
- Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust ~ Kunzea rupestris; by unknown author; notes taken from web site in 2011; RBGSYN: www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au.
- Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia ~ Kunzea rupestris; by unknown author; notes taken from web site in 2011; wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org.
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