Lomatia myricoides

Lomatia myricoides is an Australian rarity that has quietly proven itself in the American Southeast, and that combination is the whole appeal. A member of the Proteaceae, the great Southern Hemisphere family of banksias, grevilleas, and the waratah, this evergreen shrub spreads wide and low, clothed in long, narrow, sharply toothed leaves, and carries sprays of creamy-white, spidery flowers in the heat of midsummer, sweetly fragrant at close range.

In the wild the plant lines mountain watercourses through New South Wales and eastern Victoria, which earns the honest common name of river lomatia; the label crinklebush, sometimes hung on this species, actually belongs to a cousin, Lomatia silaifolia. The genus name comes from the Greek loma, a fringe or border, for the winged margin of the seed, and the epithet myricoides notes leaves that recall a Myrica, the bayberry. Coming from Australian mountains above three thousand feet, this is one of the hardiest and most adaptable of the proteas.

Where most of the family demand perfect drainage and sulk at the first whiff of phosphorus, river lomatia is comparatively easygoing, a riverbank plant that accepts ordinary garden soil and regular water better than most of the family. Woodlanders has grown the shrub with real satisfaction here in Aiken, South Carolina, and may well have been among the first to offer the species in the United States outside California, where Australian plants have long been landscape staples. As with any protea, go easy on fertilizer and give the roots sharp drainage, and the plant rewards the gamble.

Set river lomatia where the arching, fine-textured habit can spread, in full sun to part shade, as an evergreen anchor, an informal screen, or a source of long-lasting cut foliage and flowers. The summer bloom is subtle rather than shouting, a haze of fragrant cream against dark leaves, and the shrub is reportedly untroubled by deer. For the collector who wants a conversation piece that actually performs, this cold-hardy Australian is a quietly rewarding choice.