Lophostemon confertus.
Native to Queensland it is known as Brisbane, Queensland or Brush box.
Mainly seen here in parks they are apparently common as street trees in other states.
Mature trees can reach 40 or 50 m with a trunk up to 2 m across.
In cultivation they are often pruned to around 10 or 15 m.
They are evergreen, have a rounded then spreading crown and dense foliage.
The usually straight trunk has no branches from the lower half.
Reddish brown bark on the small branches is smooth and the small branchlets may have pale hairs.
Grey to brown bark on the trunk and large branches becomes rough, fissures and falls off in large
flakes exposing a pale pink, brown or cream layer.
Terminal leaf buds have a few overlapping layers of deciduous scales protecting the baby leaves.
The stiff broadly ovate scales have a pointed tip and pale hairs.
Small twigs and new leaves have white hairs.
The alternate adult leaves are so crowded at the branch ends they often appear to be in whorls of 4 or 5.
Leaves, on petioles up to 3 cm long have blades up to around 16 cm long by 5 cm wide.
The blades are ovate to elliptic with the tip tapering to a point.
Originally a pale green and membranous they mature to a leathery dark green.
The lower surface is a paler dull green and there is 1 oil gland per reticulum.
The smooth shiny upper surface has no hairs but there may be a few on the veins underneath.
The near terminal axillary inflorescences are clusters of up to 8 flowers on a peduncle around 1 cm long.
Individual flowers are on a pedicel around 5 mm long with a tiny bracteole.
There are longish erect white hairs on the stem, peduncle, pedicel and hypanthium.
The hypanthium (calyx tube of fused sepal and petal bases) is around 5 mm long.
There are 5 sepal and petal lobes alternating on the rim.
The hairy triangular sepal lobes, around 5 mm long are usually deciduous.
The round, concave white petal lobes are a few mms longer than the sepal lobes.
The hairs on the petals are short.
Filament bases are fused into 5 staminal bundles that are inserted on the hypanthium rim opposite the petals.
Each bundle, around 1 cm long has up to 70 small yellow anthers on short free sections of filament.
Filaments insert into a depression on the base of the enlarged green connective between the anther sacs.
Each bundle, curled inwards in the bud spreads out widely or curves back slightly as the flower opens.
The mostly inferior ovary has 3 locules each with numerous ovules arranged in a ring around a central placenta.
The single rigid style has a capitate stigma.
The fruit are goblet-shaped loculicidal capsules around 1 cm long.
They are surrounded by, and fused to the hypanthium with just the top of the capsule being free.
Capsules ripen from green to a reddish brown or dark grey.
The flat wedge-shaped seeds are 2 to 3 mm long.
J.F.
