AusBonsai

G'day all
I just yesterday spotted this growing in my garden under a mountain of foliage, so I didn't know what it was hiding. Needless to say i claimed it and potted it, trimmed back the unbelievable amount of excess foliage and branches it had, now I would like any help identifying this please as i am currently in love with this tree and would like to know what it is?, It is not Rosemary by the way even though it looks like it, as it's smell is nothing like rosemary, it has a kind of citrus like smell to the foliage, if anyone has any idea what it is please help me.
Cheers Boom

Hi Boomer
Nice looking potensai.
Any smell when you crush the leaves?
Where did it come from?
K

I live on the gold coast so i got it out of my garden here. When i crush the leaves there is a smell but its hard to describe, its like the grass smell you get when you run in long grass on a hot day but with a sweet citrus smell underlying, if that makes sense

Thanks Boomer. That's Ok, but it doesn't help me.
Hope you get an answer from others.
K

Possibly a 'curry plant'. I think there are a few bushes/trees carrying a curry label. The one this looks like is a member of the daisy (helichrysum) family.

pasquale wrote:Possibly a 'curry plant'. I think there are a few bushes/trees carrying a curry label. The one this looks like is a member of the daisy (helichrysum) family.

maybe one of those but i have never seen this thing flower in the 2 years ive lived in this house if that helps

Boom, It could be Westringea fruiticosa, Australian Rosemary.

Cheers
Mojo Moyogi

i just went and looked closely at it, it looks very very close to a curry plant, it has a faint curry smell but when i crush the leaves it smell nothing like curry, is this what a curry plant is like?

may be coastal rosemary

G'day all
I don't thinks its coastal Rosemary as it has never flowered as long as it was in my garden, hope this helps, maybe it dont flower because of climate. This really has me stumped

Hey Boom, is there any chance of getting a close up of the mature bark & of the foliage. It is possible it could be one of the many hybrid rosemaries that are now around. The leaves look too big to be any of the westringia's that i know of.

The aroma of a curry plant isn't really like any curry I am familiar with (and I don't think you cook with it). It's hard to describe - it is 'aromatic'. A little pungent, perhaps some cardamon. It is one of those smells that seems familiar but is hard to place. I know I'm not being very helpful. I just checked paintshop pro to see if I could post a virtual but then I realised I haven't got the scratch and sniff upgrade yet .
I don't think it looks like a westringia (AKA coastal rosemary), I agree the leaves look too long and too floppy. I reckon that if it was one of the hybrid rosemaries it would still smell like rosemary.

Looks like a rosemary to me. The foliage and bark is very much a rosemary.

Rosemary is what came to my mind first too, and was why I asked about the smell.
I'm cautious about calling it rosemary becuase of the exuberence of new shoots from the very old wood. In my experience, rosemary seldom if ever shoots from such old wood. Also, the leaves in rosemary are 'opposite', that is in pairs - one on either side of the stem. Those in Boom's photo are 'alternate' (spirally arranged down the stem).

One of the daisy family is possible, and the curry plant is possible. I had one years ago and it shot new growth like in the photos here.

K

Whatever it is? It's a very exciting piece of material. consider your dead wood work very carefully, thinking wild juniper. There is also some wonderful work with wild rosemary over in Europe, that you could google i'm sure. For now make sure it stays alive!