Mānuka

Mānuka, Leptospermum scoparium, is a species of flowering plant in the myrtle family Myrtaceae, native to New Zealand, including the Chatham Islands, and south-east Australia. Bees produce mānuka honey from its nectar. It is a prolific shrub-type tree, often one of the first species to regenerate on cleared land, usually a shrub but sometimes a moderately sized tree. It is evergreen, with dense branching, small leaves with a short spine tip, and white, occasionally pink, five-petalled flowers. It is often confused with kānuka, and the easiest way to tell them apart is that mānuka leaves are prickly and kānuka leaves are soft. In traditional Māori culture it was used as a building material, for combs, paddles, digging sticks, eel weirs and weapons, and for the palisade walls of pā. It also had uses in traditional rongoā medicine, with infusions made from leaves, or from the gum. An essential oil, for which many medicinal claims are made, is produced by steam distillation of the leaves.