Lophostemon confertus (Brisbane Box)

  • TropPlant Accession Number (TPAN): 0019
  • Botanical Name: Lophostemon confertus
  • Common Name: Brisbane Box, Vinegar Tree, Brush-Box
  • Cultivar: N/A
  • Family: Myrtaceae
  • Native To: Queensland and New South Wales
Lophostemon confertus 
Photo by Matthew Gaston

Landscaping Information

  • Plant Type: Tree
  • Texture: Dense
  • Form: Dome to Round-Headed
  • Height (on average, in landscape use): 45'-60'
  • Height to Spread Ratio: 3:1
  • Growth Rate: Fast
  • Landscape Values: Street Tree, Filler, Mass, Shade, Windbreak, Erosion Control
  • Outstanding Quality:  Despite its relatively basic leaves, flowers, and bark, it is an exceptional street tree due to its disease and pest resistance, tolerance of pollution, drought, and poor soils. Does not drop limbs like Eucalyptus and it provides more shade than Eucalyptus

Botanical Descriptions

  • Flowers: Small 0.5" long clusters of white to cream colored flowers. Looks like a feathery starfish.
  • Fruits: Woody, capsule-like, top-shaped fruits 0.5" long. Contains tiny linear seeds.
Lophostemon confertus drawn by Peter G.Wilson & J.T.Waterh.
Photo from Harvard University Botany Libraries, Cambridge, U.S.A.

  • Foliage Color: Young/immature: Bronze to light green. Mature: Very Dark Green
  • Foliage Tip: Acute
  • Foliage Base: Acute to Attenuate
  • Petiole: 0.75"-1.25"
  • Stipules: N/A
  • Margins: Smooth
  • Leaf Arrangement: Juvenile: Opposite. Mature: Alternate to Whorled near tips.
  • Leaf Shape: Lanceolate 
  • Leaf Type: Simple
  • Leaf Texture: Stiff, glabrous, firm, leathery
  • Leaf Special Notes: Very Dark Green adaxial surface. 
Lophostemon confertus adaxial leaf surface
Photo by Matthew Gaston

Lophostemon confertus abaxial leaf surface
Photo by Matthew Gaston

  • Bark and Trunk: highly textured. Rough, straiated. 
Lophostemon confertus bark
Photo by Matthew Gaston

Horticultural Information

  • Light Preference: Full Sun.
  • Light Tolerances: Semi-Sun
  • Soil Preferences:  Not Particular
  • Tolerances: Poor Drainage, Smog, Compacted Soil, Strong Winds, Moderate Winds, Humidity, Drought.
  • Water Requirements: Tolerates Drought, prefers moderate watering.
  • Notes on Maintenance: Resistant to many pests. 
  • Propagation: Seeds.
  • USDA Hardiness Zone: 10a
  • Weed Risk Assessment Score (WRA): -3. Low Risk
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