Saturday, June 21, 2014

WEEPING PEPPERMINT

I mentioned the weeping peppermint that grows in our garden (we have 3 in fact) and then thought perhaps I'd best describe just what they are like.   River mentioned she has a tree that grows near her home that causes her to close her doors and windows because of the odour.  Usually you don't smell the peppermint unless you actually crush the leaves, or at least I've never noticed it and I have a good sense of smell.

The weeping peppermint (Agonis flexuosa) is a species of tree that grows in the south-west of Western Australia.  It is easily the most common of the Agonis species. and is one of the most recognisable trees of Western Australia, being commonly grown in parks and on road verges in Perth.



It is commonly known as Western Australian peppermint, Swan River peppermint or just peppermint, and willow myrtle for its weeping habit.

The weeping peppermint occurs mainly as a small and robust tree, usually less than 10 metres tall although it has been known to grow to 15 metres.  It has a fibrous, brown bark, and long narrow, dull green leaves, with tightly clustered inflorescences of small white flowers in the axes.  It has a weeping habit, and look remarkably like the weeping willow from a distance.  Leaves are narrow and reach a length of 150mm.  It is readily identified by the powerful odour of peppermint emitted when the leaves are crushed or torn.   It flowers between August and December.  The fruit is a hard capsule, 3-4mm across, with three valves containing many very small seeds.





The genus name Agonis comes from the Greek agon, "a cluster" referring to the arrangement of the fruits.  The species name flexuosa is Latin for "full of bends". referring to the zig-zag course of the stem, which changes direction at each leaf node.  It was originally placed in the Leptospermum genus by Spangel in 1819, but Schauer placed it in Agonis in 1844.

This tree occurs in a subcoastal strip from just north of Perth, southward through the Swan Coastal Plain, then along the coast to outlying records east of Bremer Bay (34ยบ23'S.  The habitat includes limestone heath, stable dunes and sandy soils, usually inland from the coast and it also grows as an understory plant in the tuart forest.

In cultivation it is used in mass plantings, such as street trees, and has been introduced to Rottnest and Garden Islands near its native region.  Agonis flexuosa is an attractive garden or specimen tree in temperate climates.  *However, care must be exercised in selecting it for small areas, as in a yard setting.  Quick growing, the tree produces a large amount of detritus and its trunk sometimes becomes large and disproportionate to the rest of the tree.  Here weeping peppermints grow on foreshore parkland on the Swan River at Keanes Point, Peppermint Grove.


*NOTE:   We have three of these trees in our garden (two were self-sown).   Two of them have single trunks but the third and latest tree is multi-trunked.  They grow rather tall and they have not proven too large for either our front or back garden.   They do drop small leaves but we've never noticed them to be very 'messy' trees that necessitate cleaning up under them.

I understand that some people can be very allergic to these trees when they are in flower.  A friend of my daughter's who nursed at Busselton hospital (it is near there where the tuart trees grow and there are weeping peppermints scattered throughout the region) said they would quite often have patients come to the hospital whose asthma was made worse because of these trees.  Neither Phil nor I have noticed they cause us too many problems in that regard.  We tend to find the wattles give us hay fever.

10 comments:

  1. Thank you for this. It would appear the tree near me is a weeping something else, not peppermint. The bark is the same but the leaves are lighter, more a greyish green, perhaps it is just a white willow? I must get a decent photo or two and post it to see if anyone can tell me.
    The smell really is very strong, although I noticed this year it wasn't as bad nor as often as in previous years. I'll wait until the next time it flowers, that may help someone identify it for me.
    Sad that wattles give you hayfever, I like the scent from those, especially the lemon scented ones and they don't bother me at all.

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    1. I am glad you saw this post so quickly. Will be interesting when you find out what the tree is that gives you so much trouble. I think you would recognise the small if it was a peppermint. Do please let us know what it is when you do.
      We always blame the wattles but perhaps there is another plant or plants that flower at the same time. I find boronia, sweet peas and freesias cause allergies and I love all three of them.
      Hope the weekend is going well for both you and Angel. Has he settled down a little more by now (hopefully).
      In this wet weather Precious is cuddled up in a tight ball in her chair ignoring it all.

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    2. Yes, Angel is more settled now. Not a lot, he still likes to play wrestle, I wear the gardening gloves for that, but I'm a lot more careful while doing housework and making the bed, so he isn't getting much chance to jump at me unexpectedly so that helps too.
      I don't know how I'll find out what that tree is. Maybe when it is in flower I'll cut some leaves and flowers and take them to a nursery with a photo of the tree and bark.

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  2. Hari Om
    What a beautiful tree - am sure I must have seen them when in WA, but in truth may well have thought them to be weeping willow, without closer inspection. As discussed above, several plants may e cause of allergies of various kinds and for me it was the jasmine... the thing is I never had trouble when younger; it seems to be getting more problematic with age. Sigh, what doesn't?! YAM xx

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    1. They are lovely and so easy to grow whereas in the Perth climate the weeping willow is really battling to survive. They do however do well down further south in this state.
      I think some folk grow out of allergies as they age whereas others seem to develop them. I guess we are all different. As you say though, things do become a little more difficult with age. xx

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  3. What a beautiful tree. It is odd the scents which cause problems. I have no trouble with any of the blossoms, but the scent of just cut grass (particularly if it is damp) gives me an almost instant headache and nausea. And the lilies I grow in profusion cause River (and one of my friends) similar grief.

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    1. They are lovely trees. I don't think it is the perfume that causes the problem but rather the pollen. You can't actually smell them unless you crush the leaves.
      I have to shut doors and windows when lawns are being mowed although I am not as badly affected as you are thank goodness, just a stuffed up head.
      It always strikes me as such a pity when beautiful things can cause some people grief.

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    2. I'm allergic to grasses when they are seeding and in flower, the pollens blow around and give my sinuses a lot of trouble, also the jasmine and most other cloying scents. With the oriental lilies it is the pollen bunches on the stamens, if they are cut off I have no problem with the blooms, but flowers for sale don't get that treatment, so I have to avoid them. I'm also allergic to moulds and mildews, (which are essentially the same thing), so I'm having trouble right now going past many gardens where the mulches are all mouldy.

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  4. It is a beautiful tree Mimsie too bad about the allergies poor people. Hug B

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    1. This was the tree you wanted to see so I hoped you would enjoy reading about it. Fortunately it is only for a short period each year when it causes people's allergies to be worse and it is more in the area where the trees grow naturally and are very prolific.

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