Common Name: Crinkle Bush
Description: Shrubs or small trees.
Leaves alternate, simple to bipinnate, margins entire or toothed to deeply pinnatisect.
Conflorescences raceme-like or paniculate, terminal or axillary, usually much longer than the leaves; flowers pedicellate in pairs, bracts caducous. Flowers zygomorphic. Perianth tube slit by the style on the lower side while in bud. Anthers sessile. Hypogynous glands 3, or occasionally the fourth present but small. Ovary stipitate, glabrous; ovules several, in 2 rows; style long and dilated apically into a pollen presenter.
Fruit a follicle, ± leathery; seeds several, flat with a terminal wing, a yellow powdery substance between the seeds.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 12 spp., S.Amer. & Aust. Aust.: 9 spp. (endemic), Qld, N.S.W., Vic., Tas.
All species of Lomatia show considerable variation, so that it is sometimes difficult to separate them. The situation is further complicated by hybridization that frequently appears to occur when 2 species are found growing together in the field.
Text by G.J. Harden
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Mature leaves glabrous or almost so on both surfaces, rarely with a few hairs below; perianth glabrous or sparsely pubescent without | 2 |
| Leaves glabrous on upper surface, silky or sometimes rusty on lower surface; perianth densely pubescent | Lomatia fraseri |
| 2 | Leaves divided 1–4 times pinnately or 1–4-pinnatisect, 10–35 cm long | Lomatia silaifolia |
| Leaves not divided into segments, margins entire to toothed, 5–20 cm long
Back to 1 | 3 |
| 3 | Leaves linear to narrow-oblong to lanceolate, usually at least 8 times as long as broad, lamina tapering very gradually into a very short petiole or sessile | Lomatia myricoides |
| Leaves ovate to lanceolate or oblong-elliptic, less than 4 times as long as broad, lamina acute or obtuse at the base with a distinct petiole
Back to 2 | 4 |
| 4 | Conflorescences terminal, racemose or paniculate, 15–30 cm long, exceeding the leaves; leaves always toothed, teeth regular and more or less pungent; reticulate venation raised and very conspicuous above | Lomatia ilicifolia |
| Conflorescences axillary, raceme-like, 8–15 cm long, not or scarcely exceeding the leaves; leaves entire or crenate to coarsely toothed, teeth not pungent; reticulate venation often apparent but not conspicuously raised above
Back to 3 | Lomatia arborescens |
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