''Leptospermum glaucescens'', commonly known as the blue-green tea tree or smoky tea tree, is a species of shrub or small tree that is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

. It has elliptical to egg-shaped leaves that are often greyish green, white flowers about in diameter arranged in consecutive leaf

axil A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, st ...

s and fruit that remain on the plant for some time after maturity.

Description

''Leptospermum glaucescens'' is a shrub or small tree that has flaky bark and young stems that are hairy when young. It has elliptical to egg-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base, mostly about long, wide and often greyish green, tapering to a petiole about long. The flowers are arranged singly in consecutive leaf axils on a stout

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

and are about in diameter. There are broad, brownish

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s at the base of the flower bud but that fall off as the flower develops. The

floral cup In angiosperms, a hypanthium or floral cup is a structure where basal portions of the calyx, the corolla, and the stamens form a cup-shaped tube. It is sometimes called a floral tube, a term that is also used for corolla tube and calyx tube. It ...

is long and usually densely hairy. The

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

s are broadly egg-shaped to triangular, long, the

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s white, long and the

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

s about long. Flowering occurs from January to February and the fruit is a capsule wide, remains on the plant for some time after maturity and has the sepals attached.

Taxonomy and naming

''Leptospermum glaucescens'' was first formally described in 1841 by Sebastian Schauer in the journal ''Linnaea: ein Journal für die Botanik in ihrem ganzen Umfange, oder Beiträge zur Pflanzenkunde''. Schauer's description was based on specimens grown in the botanic garden in Breslau from seed donated by Berlin Botanic Garden, but extensive searches have failed to locate Schauer's type specimens. The

neotype In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes the ...

is "

virgate The virgate, yardland, or yard of land ( la, virgāta was an English unit of land. Primarily a measure of tax assessment rather than area, the virgate was usually (but not always) reckoned as hide and notionally (but seldom exactly) equal ...

shrubs to high dominating damp sandy heathland" at the western foot of the Strzelecki Peaks on the south-west of

Flinders Island Flinders Island, the largest island in the Furneaux Group, is a island in the Bass Strait, northeast of the island of Tasmania. Flinders Island was the place where the last remnants of aboriginal Tasmanian population were exiled by the colon ...

in Tasmania. In 1806,

Jacques Labillardière Jacques-Julien Houtou de Labillardière (28 October 1755 – 8 January 1834) was a French biologist noted for his descriptions of the flora of Australia. Labillardière was a member of a voyage in search of the Jean-François de Galaup, comte ...

described '' Leptospermum sericeum'' in ''

Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen ''Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen'' is a two-volume work describing the flora of Australia. Facsimiles of the originals can be found in the onlinBiodiversity Heritage Library (Vol.1)anVol 2) The author was the French botanist Jacques Labillar ...

'' from specimens collected "in capite Van-Diemen" and this name was applied to plants collected in Tasmania. However, Labillardière had confused "Van-Diemen" with "Terre Van-Leuwin", and although he later made the correction on the herbarium sheet in Paris, the name ''L. sericeum'' continued to be applied to plants collected in Tasmania. Although in 1844

Johannes Conrad Schauer Johannes Conrad Schauer (16 February 1813 – 24 October 1848) was a botanist interested in Spermatophytes. He was born in Frankfurt am Main and attended the gymnasium of Mainz from 1825 to 1837. For the next three years he worked at the Hofgar ...

noted in ''

Plantae Preissianae ''Plantae preissianae sive enumeratio plantarum quas in australasia occidentali et meridionali-occidentali annis 1838-1841 collegit Ludovicus Preiss'', more commonly known as ''Plantae preissianae'', is a book written by Johann Georg Christian Leh ...

'' (in Latin) "in Van Leuwin's Land, not on Van Diemen's Island", the correction was not made until 1967 with the publication of

James Hamlyn Willis James Hamlyn Willis (28 January 1910 – 10 November 1995) was an Australian botanist. He described 64 new species of plants, and published more than 880 works including the landmark two-volume ''A Handbook to plants in Victoria'' between 1962 ...

's paper in the journal '' Muelleria''. ''Leptospermum sericeum'' is a Western Australian endemic, found near Esperance, which has pink,

sessile Sessility, or sessile, may refer to: * Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about * Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant * Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...

flowers and does not grow to the height of ''L. glaucescens''.

Distribution and habitat

The blue-green tea tree grows in wet heath and is widespread in Tasmania.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15368637 glaucescens Myrtales of Australia Flora of Tasmania Plants described in 1841