Tea tree [Greek leptos, slender or small, and sperma, seed, alluding to form and size]

Elizabeth McClintock†

Shrubs or small trees, glabrous or pubescent, hairs simple. Leaves alternate; blade venation parallelodromous, faint, often with visible midvein, sometimes also 2–4 veins arising from base, arching to apex. Inflorescences 1–3-flowered, axillary, flowers solitary or clustered. Flowers 5-merous, subsessile; hypanthium mostly widely cup-shaped; calyx lobes distinct; petals white [pink or red]; stamens 15–35, about as long as perianth; ovary [2–]6–12-locular; style equaling or shorter than stamens; ovules [6–]15[–28] per locule. Fruits capsules, brown or gray, obconic to broadly bowl-shaped, woody, opening apically. Seeds numerous, obovoid to irregular-linear, flattened, 1–2.5 mm; seed coat reticulate or striate.

Species ca. 70 (1 in the flora): introduced, California; Australasia.

Lower Taxon

• Leptospermum laevigatum (Gaertner) F. Mueller