Pine Heath

Appearance

''Astroloma pinifolium'' grows as a spreading shrub 30 cm to 1 m high and 0.5 to 1.5 m across. Its hairy stems are densely packed with pine-like leaves 1–3 cm long. The tubular flowers are up to 2 cm long and appear from August to April, and are found singly along the stems, either yellow or pink with a band of yellow, green at the tip, and tapered at both ends. Flowers are followed by pale green globular berries around 0.5 cm in diameter.

Distribution

Pine heath is found from the north coast of New South Wales, from Evans Head south along the coast, Southern Tablelands and great divide into Victoria and Tasmania. It grows in open forest and heathland on well-drained sandy soils, where it co-occurs with such species as ''Eucalyptus sieberi'', ''E. globoidea'', and ''Angophora costata'' in the former habitat, and ''Allocasuarina distyla'' and ''Banksia ericifolia'' in the latter.