Xanthostemon verticillatus.
This is an Australian native from N.E. Queensland.
Known as the Penda or Bloomfield Penda it is sold as Little Penda and White Penda.
They are evergreen multi-stemmed shrubs with a rounded crown.
Often seen around 1 to 3 m high they can grow to 5 or 6 m.
There are oil glands and most parts have very short (0.1 to 0.2 mm) fine hairs lying flat on the surface.
It is the only species to have leaves in whorls with 3 (4 or 5) in each.
On petioles only 4 or 5 mm long they are up to 8 cm long by 1.5 cm wide.
The narrow dark green blades are elliptic and the base of the midvein is prominent.
New leaves are red or orange and old ones turn a darker red before they fall.
There are scattered oil glands with 1 or 2 in each reticulum (areas inside the venules).
Axillary inflorescences, with 1 to 3 flowers are clustered near the branch ends.
There are bracteoles at the base of, and on the pedicels.
Flowers have a hypanthium around 12 mm wide and half that length.
Formed by fusion of the sepal and petal bases it has 6 alternating sepal and petal lobes on the rim.
The slightly bumpy surface has oil glands and a few very small hairs.
The inner surface is lined by yellow nectiferous tissue that exudes a lot of nectar.
The roughly triangular green sepal lobes are around 4 mm long.
They have fine hairs and oil glands and they persist on the fruit.
The larger white to cream round to ovate petal lobes are up to 8 mm long.
They have fine hairs and oil glands and they only last a few days.
Between the bases of the petals and stamens is a row of linear staminodes around 2 mm long.
There are up to 50 stamens attached to the rim of the hypanthium.
Curled inwards in the bud they straighten to be up to 2 cm long.
The white filaments insert into a depression at the base of the connective between the anther sacs.
The yellow anthers, around 1.25 mm long open through longitudinal slits.
The 2 to 3 mm long ovary lies inside the hypanthium but is not fused to it.
The smooth green outer surface is dotted with oil glands.
Each of the 4 locules has numerous flat ovules in a ring around a central placenta.
The single white style, up to 3.5 cm long extends past the stamens.
The stigma is very small.
The fruit are roughly spherical woody loculicidal capsules around 1 cm long.
Maturing from green to brown the hypanthium and sepal lobes remain attached.
The flat angular seeds are around 3 mm long.
Xanthostemon whitei (Xanthostemon pubescens) is a tree up to 15 m high with buttress roots.
The red new leaves give it the common name of Red Penda.
New growth has dense brown hairs and the flowers have hairs on the white petals.
The stamen filaments and the style are yellow.
J.F.
