Strong lemon scent

Shrub to 5 metres found near wet sclerophyll forest or rainforest, on sandy soils or on rocky escarpments, north from Port Macquarie, NSW. Fast-growing screen plant. Slightly frost tender. Bark flaky, persistent and fibrous, younger stems hairy, soon hairless. Leaves often strongly lemon-scented, narrow-elliptic to lanceolate, usually 20-40 mm long, 2-5 mm wide, flat or recurved, mostly hairless; base tapering; sessile. White flowers in spring and early summer. Flowers usually solitary, 10-15 mm in diameter, white, new growth tinged with red or purple. To make tea from Leptospermum petersonii harvest a small handful of fresh, clean leaves, gently crush or tear them to release the essential oils and steep in boiling water for 5 to 10 minutes before straining. The oils in the leaves are citral and citronellal.

Photo: Robert Whyte

Flowers. Photo: Matt Tomkins

Seed collecting and propagation

Fruit 6 mm, valves spreading as wide or wider than the rim. Collect and then store capsules in a paper bag in a warm dry place to open and release the seeds. No treatment required. Sow seed in spring, only just cover the seed. Germination takes 5 to 25 days. Prick out the seedlings into tubes when they are large enough to handle and grow them on in the nursery for at least their first winter. Plant out in late spring or early summer, after the last expected frosts, and give some protection from the cold for their first winter or two outdoors. The seed remains viable for many years.

Fruit. Photo: Matt Tomkins