Prostanthera saxicola
Prostanthera saxicola is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a shrub with linear to elliptic leaves and white to mauve flowers arranged in leaf axils. Description. "Prostanthera saxicola" is a prostrate to erect, spreading to compact shrub that typically grows to a height of and sometimes has branches covered with white hairs flattened against the stem and more or less sessile glands. Its leaves are linear to elliptic, long and wide on a petiole up to long. The flowers are borne in leaf axils with bracteoles long  at the base, the sepals long forming a tube long with two lobes, the upper lobe long. The petals are white to mauve and long. Flowering occurs between July and February. Taxonomy. "Prostanthera saxicola" was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown in his treatise "Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen". Four varieties have been described, the names accepted by the Australian Plant Census: Distribution and habitat. This mintbush is widely distributed from south-eastern Queensland, through eastern New South Wales and in scattered places in Victoria. It grows in woodland and forest, and often in heath . Variety "bracteolata", commonly known as slender mint-bush, is found in south-eastern Queensland and from the Pilliga forest to the Kanangra-Boyd National Park in New South Wales. It is the only variety occurring in Victoria. Variety "major" grows in heath in south-eastern Queensland and the Gibraltar Range National Park in New South Wales. Variety "montana" occurs in south-eastern New South Wales and var. "saxicola" in eastern New South Wales. Conservation status in Queensland. Both varieties of "P. saxicola" ("major" and "bracteolata") found in Queensland are listed as of "least concern" under the Queensland Government "Nature Conservation  Act 1992.