I bought a forestry tube with a Leptospermum laevegatum from a market in Mallacoota many years ago. After potting the tea tree on into a larger pot another seedling came up so I also potted it up. It has been growing on for around 10 years now and has responded really well to bonsai techniques but has never flowered so ID has been a mystery. I assumed it was another leptospermum species because of the bark and small rounded leaves and the way it responds to both root pruning and trimming.
Last year it looked good enough to put into a bonsai pot.
This spring I noticed flower buds and now I have flowers and the mystery is (more or less) solved.
The flowers with long stamens are typical of the Kunzea tribe.
Marcela from Vic native bonsai club said it looks very much like the trees they collected on club digs at a property north of Melbourne and referred me to a club newsletter article by Eric Wilkinson dealing with the naming of the species.
Commonly known as Burgan. Botanically it has been grouped in Baekia, Kunzea and Leptospermum at different times and has also had several different specific names. Right up to it was called Kunzea ericoides when a NZ botanist reclaimed Kunzea ericoides as a NZ endemic (Plantnet, the NSW database has not yet been updated and still lists Kunzea ericoides as a NSW species but notes that name should refer to a NZ species) Flora of Victoria has had some updates and notes that Burgan is now recognised as a complex of 4 different species:
Kunzea leptospermoides - Yarra burgan from south of the dividing range
Kunzea peduncularis - Mountain Burgan grows north of the ranges including East Gippsland
Kunzea spp (scrubby form) Tangled burgan from dry sites east of Bairnsdale
Kunzea sp (upright form) Forest Burgan from east and North east vic, possibly also Lorne and NSW
So the exact identity of this species is almost as tangled as the forest it comes from. Until the botanists sort these species out a bit better I'm calling this one Mountain Burgan - Kunzea peduncularis
First flowers
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shibui
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First flowers
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