The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Lomatia fraseri
Also called Silky Lomatia, Tree Lomatia
Forest lomatia is a shrub or small tree from eastern Australia, grown for its highly variable leaves and cream flower spikes. It does best in part shade with extra water while young and an organic mulch.
Lomatia fraseri, commonly known as tree lomatia, forest lomatia or silky lomatia is a plant of the family Proteaceae native to eastern Australia. It grows as a shrub or small tree, reaching 8–11 metres (26–36 ft) high, with highly variable leaves. The cream to white inflorescences appear over summer. It is found in rainforest margins, gullies and heathland in mountainous regions of Victoria and New South Wales. It regenerates from fire by regrowing from a lignotuber.
The marked variation in leaf shape are an interesting horticultural feature. Lomatia fraseri grows in sun or preferably part-shade, benefiting from extra watering when young and from organic mulch. It is moderately frost-tolerant. Propagation is by seed or cutting.
Joseph Maiden reported that its wood was light and hard, and easily worked. It had been used for furniture and window-frames in the 19th century.
Lomatia fraseri has a disjunct distribution, being found in the New England district of northern New South Wales north to Tenterfield and from Budawang National Park in southern New South Wales into eastern and central Victoria to the Otway Ranges. It is found in rainforest margins in mountainous regions. Often found in gullies in Victoria, it grows more in open woodland and heath in New South Wales.
Smooth Lomatia · Lomatia dentata · Lomatia ferruginea · Lomatia hirsuta · Holly Lomatia · Longleaf Lomatia · Mountain Guitar Plant · Crinklebush · King's Lomatia · Guitar Plant · Guitar Plants
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Lomatia fraseri 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.
