Thyme honey-myrtle is native to S. E. Queensland and into N. S. W.
They are a low shrub often growing from a woody underground tuber (thickened part of an underground stem).
Usually up to around 1 m high, in perfect conditions they can be more.
The thin, arching much branched stems have a grey corky bark.
Small branchlets have tiny soft hairs that are lost on older stems.
Small grey-green leaves are opposite and decussate (in 4 ranks).
On a petiole 1 mm long they are sometimes sub-opposite.
The flat narrow elliptic to lance-shaped blades have a pointed end.
The midrib is visible as are the oil glands on the lower surface.
Th edges are thicker than the rest of the blade.
Axillary inflorescences are terminal on short side branches along the stems.
The small heads or spikes, up to 2 cm long have a few up to around 10 flowers.
Flowers, with no pedicel have a wide area of attachment to the hairless side branch.
Each flower has a small leaf-like bract at its base.
Like the leaves they have 3 longitudinal veins but often only 1 is visible.
The oil glands are prominent on the green then yellowish bracts.
The hypanthium, of fused sepal petal and filament bases has no hairs.
On the rim, and in 2 whorls are 5 sepal lobes alternating with 5 petal lobes.
The green triangular sepal lobes have a thin membranous edge with tiny hairs on it.
Ovate petal lobes, on a narrow claw base also have small hairs on the edges.
Petals of species plants, around 5 mm long are purple.
The over one hundred stamens are in 5 bundles with each inserted opposite the base of a petal lobe.
In each bundle the filament bases are fused for around 5 mm forming the claws.
The at least 30 or 40 free filaments are attached along the sides and tip of the claws.
The claws are a pale mauve and the filaments a deeper colour.
The claws curve inwards and the free filaments also arch inwards.
The stamens give flowers a feathery or lacy appearance.
The ovary has 3 locules each with numerous ovules with axile placentation.
Fully in the hypanthium the lower part of the ovary is fused to it.
There are hairs on the top of the ovary.
Fruit are a woody loculicidal capsule around 4 mm long and wide.
The remnants of the sepal lobes are on the narrower 2 mm wide rim.
Th pale brown linear seeds are mostly infertile and form the chaff.
Thyme Honey-myrtle, and its white pink and deep mauve cultivars are widely cultivated.
J.F.
