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Leptospermum scoparium
Also called Broom teatree, Tea tree, Broom Tea Tree, Manuka Teatree, Maoritea Tree, New Zealand Teatree, Manuka Myrtle
Mānuka is an evergreen shrub, sometimes a small tree, native to New Zealand and south-east Australia, prized for its white flowers and honey. The key to growing it is full sun, excellent drainage and poor soil, as it dislikes rich, wet conditions.
Mānuka (Māori pronunciation: [ˈmaːnʉka]; Leptospermum scoparium) is a species of flowering plant in the myrtle family Myrtaceae, native to New Zealand (including the Chatham Islands) and south-east Australia. Bees produce mānuka honey from its nectar.
The Latin specific epithet scoparium means 'like broom', referring to Northern Hemisphere genera such as Genista and Cytisus which it resembles in both general habit and in the landscape, sharing a preference for dry and exposed sites and poor soils, although it is only distantly related.
Numerous cultivars have been developed for garden use, of which the following have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:
(Nanum Group) 'Kiwi'
In traditional Māori culture, mānuka was used for a wide variety of uses, including as a building material, for items such as combs, paddles and digging sticks, to construct eel weirs, for weaponry, and to construct pallisade walls of pā. The plant also had uses in traditional rongoā medicine, with infusions being made from leaves, or by collecting mānuka gum.
Gaudium laevigatum · Aggreflorum longifolium · Pink Tea Tree · Teatree
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Mānuka by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
