Prostanthera teretifolia



Prostanthera teretifolia, commonly known as turpentine bush, is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae and is endemic to a restricted area of New South Wales. It is an erect to spreading, aromatic shrub with more or less cylindrical leaves and bluish-purple flowers.

Description
Prostanthera teretifolia is an erect to spreading, aromatic shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.3–1 m with branches that are densely hairy and glandular. The leaves are greyish green, more or less cylindrical, 5–16 mm long and 0.5–0.9 mm wide, sometimes with two or three lobes, on a petiole 0.6–1.8 mm long. The flowers are arranged in groups on the ends of leafy branchlets, the sepals about 4 mm long forming a tube 2–2.5 mm wide with two lobes, the upper lobe 1.5–2 mm long. The petals are bluish-purple, 8–9 mm long forming a tube 4.5–5 mm long. Flowering usually occurs from August to December.

Taxonomy
Prostanthera teretifolia was first formally described in 1908 by Joseph Maiden and Ernst Betche in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales.

Distribution and habitat
Turpentine bush grows in open and exposed areas amongst granite outcrops near Torrington on the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales.