About

Philotheca myoporoides, commonly known as long-leaf wax flower, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rutaceae and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is a shrub with sessile, oblong to egg-shaped, glandular-warty leaves and white to pink flowers arranged singly in leaf axils. Prior to 1998 it was known as Eriostemon myoporoides.

How to grow it

The species is well adapted to cultivation, and plants are commercially available at nurseries in Australia.

The species prefers a well-drained position in light shade. Established plants tolerate both dry periods and moderate frost. Plants may be propagated from semi-mature cuttings, though some forms are slow to take root.

Where it grows

Subspecies acuta grows on rocky sandstone hills from Lockhart to near Cobar. Subspecies brevipedunculata is found coastal areas to mountain summits between Sassafras and Moruya in south-eastern New South Wales. Subspecies euroensis grows among granite boulders on the Strathbogie Ranges near Euroa in north-eastern Victoria. Subspecies myoporoides grows in forest and heathland, usually near watercourses, mostly along the Great Dividing Range from the northern border of New South Wales to near Healesville in Victoria. Subspecies petraea is only known from rocky areas on Mount Stewart, west of Gelantipy in north-eastern Victoria.

Other Philotheca plants

Philotheca pungens · Philotheca trachyphylla · Philotheca acrolopha · Narrow Leaf Wax Flower · Philotheca apiculata · Philotheca basistyla · Philotheca brevifolia · Philotheca brucei · Philotheca buxifolia · Philotheca ciliata · Philotheca citrina · Philotheca coateana