Flora of New Zealand Series

Fls small, mostly solitary and axillary; sepals and petals us. 5; stamens us. in 1 series, anthers versatile. Ovary completely to half inferior, us. with 5 to several cells; style filiform, stigma ± capitate. Capsule woody, with ∞ pend., linear seeds (many often sterile). Shrubs or trees with small, alt., entire lvs. Some 35, mostly Australian, spp. with a few in N.Z., New Caledonia and Malaya.

The N.Z. spp. appear to be all endemic. The status of the multitudinous forms is very imperfectly known. Cockayne (N.Z. Plants and their Story ed. 2, 1919, 72) remarks: "Leptospermum scoparium . . . presents a diversity of forms which are seemingly impossible to classify. Some, it is true, are distinct races, but most are probably unfixed hybrids between races not yet defined by the plant-classifier." L. ericoides shows almost as great diversity, and neither have been critically studied.