''Leptospermum recurvum'' is a species of shrub or tree that is native to

Mount Kinabalu Mount Kinabalu ( ms, Gunung Kinabalu, Dusun language, Dusun: ''Gayo Ngaran or Nulu Nabalu'') is the highest mountain in Borneo and Malaysia. With an elevation of , it is List of islands by highest point, third-highest peak of an island on Eart ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

and to

Sulawesi Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...

. It has pale, flaky bark, broadly elliptical to almost round leaves, white flowers about wide and fruit that tend to remain on the plant for a year or two.

Description

''Leptospermum recurvum'' is sometimes a prostrate shrub, sometimes a tree to or more in height. It has thin, pale, flaky bark and young stems that have a broad flange near the leaf bases. The leaves are broadly elliptical to egg-shaped or almost round with their edges strongly curved downwards, mostly long and wide, and lack a petiole. The upper surface of the leaves is mostly glossy and the lower surface usually silky-hairy at first. The flowers are white, about wide and arranged singly on short side shoots. There are broad reddish brown

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 buds that mostly remain at the base of the open flowers. 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, tapering to a short

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 ...

. 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 long and almost hemispherical, 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 are about 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 probably occurs in most months. The fruit is a capsule wide and that tends to remain on the plant for a few years.

Taxonomy and naming

''Leptospermum recurvum'' was first formally described in 1852 by

Joseph Dalton Hooker Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (30 June 1817 – 10 December 1911) was a British botanist and explorer in the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For twenty years he served as director of t ...

William Jackson Hooker Sir William Jackson Hooker (6 July 178512 August 1865) was an English botanist and botanical illustrator, who became the first director of Kew when in 1841 it was recommended to be placed under state ownership as a botanic garden. At Kew he ...

's book, ''

Icones Plantarum ''Icones Plantarum'' is an extensive series of published volumes of botanical illustration, initiated by Sir William Jackson Hooker. The Latin name of the work means "Illustrations of Plants". The illustrations are drawn from herbarium specimens o ...

''. The type specimens were collected from "Kina Balu" where the species was recorded as being "abundant, from , whitening the top of the mountain".

Distribution and habitat

''Leptospermum recurvum'' grows in crevices between rocks at high elevations on Mount Kinabalu.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q768910 recurvum Flora of Sabah Flora of Sulawesi Taxa named by Joseph Dalton Hooker Plants described in 1852 Flora of Mount Kinabalu Alpine flora