Today's photos were contributed by J.G. in S.F. via the UBCBG Botany Photo of the Day Group Pool. Thanks J.G., all the photos are great—the single flower close up is exquisite.
Leptospermum is a genus of around 80 species. Most are endemic to Australia, but one species is found in New Zealand and two are found in Malaysia. Early Australian settlers made tea from several species of Leptospermum, which led to the common name, tea tree. (Although Leptospermum species have antibacterial and antifungal properties, they are not to be confused with the currently popular tee tree oil, which comes from Melaleuca alternifolia.)
Leptospermums are evergreen shrubs or trees and make good landscape plants in warm areas. Leptospermum rotundifolium was previoulsy featured on BPotD. The round-leaved tea tree is noted among the genus for its exceptionally large showy flowers. The cultivar in today's photo, ‘Manning’s Choice’ certainly illustrates this. ‘Manning’s Choice’ reaches a height of around 1.8 metres and blooms much of the year, peaking in the Spring.
What a wonderful spash of awesome beauty to brighten my day. Thank you!
Thanks to all concerned for selecting my photos for today's featured plant. Unfortunately, in copying them to the website some blurring seems to have occurred. At least on my computer, the effect is a little like a photo printed slightly out of register. As a convenience to anyone interested in viewing the original Flickr files, I am including these links:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2141/3540322991_2dbe01a02a_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3493/3242845012_aa4d8f8f43_b.jpg
How timely! We have all been talking about this wonderful Leptospermum the last few days. Great picture!
Amazing colors. Producers of science fiction movies don't need to go far to get inspiration for their more bizarre creations. They just need to get up close and personal with what's all around us!
I love these cute little purple flowers. And the leaves are just as pretty too.
WOW! I had no idea that Leptos could be so... fancy.Gorgeous!
Simply stunning. Thank you.
James, you are just like a Southern cook -- no matter how amazing your creation (or photograph), you have to find a flaw and apologize! Sounds familiar, but really, these are just GORGEOUS! Thank you for sending in your goodies.
The photos on my screen came through with such great clarity that I am compelled to comment on the high photo quality. I am not experiencing the blurring you see James. It's such a nice photo that I made it my wallpaper.
Thanks for the links James. It is funny. On my computer at work the images look sharp and fantastic, but when I checked the post at home the colours seemed a bit faded and maybe not quite as sharp. Unfortunately different browsers and different operating systems deliver slightly different results. I only resized the photos, but even that could make a difference, as image processing on Macs is different from PCs.
Anyway, they are fantastic photos.
Thank you for these lovely photos, they came through to me in the North of the U.K., really clearly, I could have almost picked them off my sceen. Wonderful.
this just made my day
the news can be so grim
thank you my mail box
was just delghtful this am
then i come here nightime
fill my eyes read all the
comments -adjust my tri-focals
same for the screen -tis holiday
here in the states have a good one
Thanks James for sharing such fantastic photos
The close up shows off some of the true beauty of nature in this magnificent flower.
I find it amazing and have used it as desktop background and shared it with friends.
Thank you
from Martin in Ireland
Does anybody know a nursery who sell this beautiful plant?
Thank you for the tips and infos Already bookmarked. Some people are like Slinkies ... not really good for anything, but you can't help smiling when you see one tumble down the stairs.