Plants in my Garden

By Mike Beamish

Species		Correa lawrenceana var. latrobeana.
Family		Rutaceae

Derivation

Correa		Named after Jose Francisco Correa de Serra (1751-1823), permanent secretary, Royal Academy of Sciences, Lisbon, Portugal
lawrenceana		Named after R.W. Lawrence (1807-33), an English botanical collector who was recruited by W. Hooker to collect in Tasmania in 1830
latrobeana		Named after Charles Joseph La Trobe, Superintendent and later Lieutenant Governor (1851) of Port Phillip, Victoria
Common Name		Mountain Correa

Distribution

In remnant, wet, mountain forest along the Great Dividing Range in Victoria and southern NSW and in the Otway and Strzelecki Ranges.

Description

Usually a small tree to 5m tall, but some populations can be up to 16m tall. Leaves are elliptic to ovate and up to 120mm long, velvety hairy underneath but becoming smooth and green with age on top. Flowers can occur in groups of three at the end of branchlets and are tubular to 30mm long, greenish-yellow, with a rusty-hairy, cup-shaped calyx to 7mm long that has either wavy margins or small linear lobes to 3mm long.

Opinion

Not commonly cultivated, my plant came from a Correa Study Group meeting a few years ago (June 2017), where cuttings were available for members to try. My efforts were successful and one of the successes was subsequently planted on the western wall of the house (winter 2018). It has prospered reasonably well since then and is currently about a metre tall and broad. It flowered for the first time in early 2020 and though the flowers are not particularly colourful, the birds like them and the plant itself is good for hiding the ugly brick wall behind a dense screen of green leaves. It is nearly time to consider taking some cuttings from my plant, to continue distributing plants around local gardens and to return the favour at the next Correa Study Group gathering.

The Australian Plants Society Latrobe Valley Group hosts monthly activities, excursions and /or meetings. Interested persons are welcome to join in, please contact Mike for more information, email mcandcjb@gmail.com or phone 0447 452 755.

Sources

Elliot & Jones – Encyclopaedia of Australian Plants, Volume 3.

Hitchcock – Correas: Australian Plants for Waterwise Gardens.

Online – Flora of Victoria.