Plants in the Hortus

Many of the plants described here were listed in the catalogues of plants published by Sir William Macarthur in 1843, 1845, 1850 and 1857 and in an unpublished catalogue dated 1861. A large number of additional plants were identified from correspondence, gardening notebooks and other documents surviving in the archives. The Hortus attempts to describe all the plants grown in the gardens at Camden Park and those grown in horticultural enterprises such as orchards and vineyards and includes plants grown outside the gardens in the park-like environs of the Camden Park estate. The Hortus plants served a wide range of purposes in the 19th century household; as ornament, living fences, fibre, dyestuffs, medicines, food and drink from the garden, orchard and vineyard and many others.

Tagetes coccinea [catalogue error]

Almost certainly an uncorrected error with Thunbergia coccinea intended. Included here to ensure that all catalogued plants are represented.

Tagetes patula L.

Half hardy, compact annual with feathery, pinnate leaves and solitary, often double flower heads in a colour range from yellow to red-brown, self-coloured or multi-coloured, depending on strain, born in succession from late spring to autumn. To 35cm, sometimes taller. There are many garden cultivars. [RHSE, Hortus].

Tamarindus indica L.

Frost-tender, long-lived evergreen tree with an open, spreading crown, feathery foliage and fragrant, pale yellow flowers, veined with red or rose, in summer, followed by pod-like fruit containing a dense, chocolate- or rose-coloured flesh. To 25m. [RHSD, Hortus].

Taxodium distichum (L.) Rich.

Fully-hardy, deciduous, conical tree, becoming columnar and ragged with age, with alternate, narrowly lance-shaped leaves, to 2cm long, turning red-brown in autumn, and green female cones, to 3cm across. To 40m. [RHSE, Hortus, Hilliers’].

Taxodium distichum (L.) Rich. var. nutans (Ait.) Endl.

An upright tree with the trunk expanded at the base, a conical to columnar crown, and short- triangular branches. The variety nutans is deciduous, the shoots strongly erect at first, then with pendulous tips. See also see Taxodium distichum (L.) Rich. [RHSE, Hortus, Hilliers’].

Taxodium mucronatum Ten.

Taxodium mucronatum is very similar to Taxodium distichum (L.) Rich., which see, but its leaves are semi-persistent in warm areas. To 45m. [RHSD, Hortus, Hilliers’].

Taxus baccata L.

Fully-hardy, broadly conical evergreen tree with spreading, horizontal branches, purple-brown bark, linear dark green, 2-ranked leaves, to 3cm long, and red fruit, to 1cm across. To 20m. [RHSE, Hortus, Hilliers’].

Taxus baccata L. var. adpressa

See Taxus baccata L. for a description of the species. Adpressa is an evergreen shrub or small tree, a female clone of dense, spreading habit, with ascending branches, short, crowded branchlets, and wide, pointed leaves, to 1.5cm long. To 6m.

Tecoma stans (L.) Juss. ex H.B.&K.

Frost tender, large shrub or small tree, often multi-trunked, with pinnate leaves, to 35cm long, composed of up to 13 lance-shaped, toothed leaflets, and terminal racemes or panicles of funnel-shaped, bright yellow flowers, to 5cm long, from late winter to summer. To 9m. [RHSE, Hortus].

Tecomaria capensis (Thunb.) Spach.

Frost tender, erect, scrambling, evergreen shrub with slender stems, 5-7 toothed, slender leaflets per leaf and racemes of slender, tubular, orange to scarlet flowers, up to 7cm long, in summer. To 7m. [RHSE, Hilliers’, Hortus].

Telopea speciosissima (Sm.) R.Br.

Half hardy evergreen shrub with obovate, toothed leaves, to 25cm long, and flower-heads, to 15cm across, consisting of a ring of red bracts and many tubular, bright red flowers, in spring. To 3m. [RHSE, Hortus, FNSW, Hilliers’].

Tephrosia species unidentified

Tephrosia is a genus of about 100 species of mainly herbs and sub-shrubs widely dispersed around the world in warmer climes. [RHSD]. Macarthur’s Tephrosia sp. is possibly Tephrosia grandiflora (L’Hére. ex Ait.) Pers., from South Africa, the only species naturalised in the Sydney area. [Beadle]. This is a frost-tender evergreen shrub with pinnate leaves composed of up to 7 pairs of lance-shaped leaflets, to 2cm long, and short terminal or axillary racemes of red to purple, pea-like flowers. To 1m. [RHSD, Hortus].

Thespesia populnea (L.) Correa

Tender tree with heart-shaped leaves, flowers yellow with a purple centre at first, becoming all purple within a day. To 12m or more. [RHSD, Hortus].

Thuja occidentalis L.

Fully-hardy, rounded, conical evergreen tree, with horizontally spreading branches, up-curved at the tips, shredding orange-brown bark, ovate, yellowish leaves, and ovoid female cones, to 1cm long. To 20m. [RHSE, Hortus, Hilliers’].

Thunbergia alata Bojer ex Sims

Frost tender, evergreen, perennial, twining climber, often grown as an annual, with bright orange or yellow flowers with black centres from summer to autumn. A number of garden cultivars are available in a range of colours, sometimes without the dark centre. Readily self-seeds. To 2.5m. [RHSE, Hortus].

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