Common correa

Correa reflexa is a variable, evergreen shrub of the Rutaceae family, typically growing 0.3 to 2 metres tall with a spreading or upright habit and slender, hairy or stellate-tomentose young branches. The opposite leaves are simple, ovate to elliptic or narrowly oblong, 0.5 to 4 centimetres long and 3 to 25 millimetres wide, often with a cordate or rounded base, an entire margin and a paler, densely stellate-hairy lower surface that gives off an aromatic citrus-like scent when crushed. The pendulous tubular flowers, borne singly or in small clusters at the branch tips chiefly from autumn through winter and spring, are 1.5 to 4 centimetres long, with four fused petals that flare and reflex at the tips; colours range from greenish-yellow and cream through pink and red to almost crimson, often with contrasting yellow or green tips, and the eight stamens are exserted beyond the corolla. Native to southern and eastern Australia including Tasmania, it inhabits coastal heath, mallee, dry sclerophyll forest and rocky outcrops on a range of soils.