Mountain tea tree facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Mountain tea tree |
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Scientific classification  |
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| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Myrtales |
| Family: | Myrtaceae |
| Genus: | Leptospermum |
| Species: | |
| Subspecies: |
L. p. subsp. montanum
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| Trinomial name | |
| Leptospermum polygalifolium subsp. montanum Joy Thomps.
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The mountain tea tree (also called tantoon) is a type of shrub or small tree. Its scientific name is Leptospermum polygalifolium subsp. montanum. You can find it growing in eastern Australia.
The very first sample of this plant was collected in 1912. It was found near a place called Yarrowitch. This plant is a special kind of Tantoon and belongs to the Myrtle family. It looks a lot like other plants known as "tea trees" or "paperbarks."
The name montanum means "of the mountains." This tells us that the mountain tea tree likes to grow in high places. The word Polygalifolium comes from Latin. It describes how the leaves of this plant look similar to some plants in the Polygala family.
Where the Mountain Tea Tree Lives
This plant loves to grow in special places. You can often find it at the start of mountain streams. It also grows in rocky areas where the soil is shallow. This soil often comes from granite or basalt rocks.
The mountain tea tree usually lives in high-up areas that don't get many fires. These places are often in rainforests or at the edges of rainforests. You can find them north of the Barrington Tops region. The most northern place it has been seen is at Mount Cordeaux.
What the Mountain Tea Tree Looks Like
The mountain tea tree is usually a shrub, which is like a large bush. It can grow from one to seven metres tall. But at Mount Hyland Nature Reserve, it can grow much taller! There, it can reach up to 25 metres tall. That's like a seven-story building! Its trunk can also be quite wide, up to 56 centimetres across.
The trunk of the tree is not perfectly round. It has vertical grooves, especially near the bottom. On older trees, the bark feels like paper and is grey or light brown. New branches are thin and have soft, silky hairs on them.
The leaves grow one after another on the stem. They are about 10 to 15 millimetres long and 3 to 5 millimetres wide. They usually have a blunt tip. The edges of the leaves curl over slightly. The top of the leaf is dark green, and the bottom is lighter. Young leaves also have silky hairs. The leaves are shaped like a reverse lanceolate (like a spearhead) or an ellipse (like an oval). The leaf stems are very short or hard to see. If you look closely with a magnifying glass, you can easily see tiny oil dots on the leaves. Only the main vein can be seen on the underside of the leaf.
Flowers and Fruit
The mountain tea tree has single white flowers. They appear from October to January. Each flower is about 12 millimetres wide. The part of the flower that holds the petals (called the hypanthium) is about 3.5 millimetres long. The small leaf-like parts that protect the bud (called sepals) are about 2 millimetres long.
After the flowers, the plant produces fruit. The fruit is a grey, half-round capsule with a flat bottom. It is about 6 to 9 millimetres wide. The stalk that holds the capsule is 2 to 3 millimetres long. When the capsule opens, it splits into five parts that spread out wide. The fruit becomes ripe from October to April.
