Leptospermum laevigatum (Gaertn.) F.Muell.

Shrub or small tree 1–2–(7) m high. Bark peeling in thin strips. Branchlets and lvs silky-hairy when very young, soon glabrous. Lvs glabrous except when very young, subsessile or very shortly petiolate, spreading to erect. Lamina 17–30 × 5–9 mm, oblong-obovate or almost oblong, dotted with numerous minute dark glands; main longitudinal veins 3 or 5; base cuneate; apex mucronulate but otherwise blunt. Fls axillary, subsessile, solitary. Bracts and bracteoles brown and papery. Hypanthium c. 3 mm long, broad-campanulate; calyx lobes c. 2 mm long, triangular, ± caducous, with margin and back ± clothed in silky white hairs. Petals 6–8 mm long, suborbicular or broad-ovate, white, patent. Stamens c. 20, ± = style. Ovary apex clothed in fine, dense, appressed, white hairs; style stout. Capsule 7–10-celled, c. 6 mm wide., broad and flat-topped, woody, long-persistent, exserted beyond receptacle rim. Seeds numerous; sterile seeds linear, wingless; fertile seeds larger, ovate, with lamellate wings.

[From: Webb et al. (1988) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 4.]