Hi Nailer,
First it should be noted that the common nomenclature 'tea tree' is
used for several different species.
"Tea-tree. Note, there are 3 different species of Myrtaceae growing in
Australia and New Zealand known as ?Tea-tree?: the Australian Tea tree
(Melaleuca alternifolia), the New Zealand Manuka (Leptospermum
scoparium) and Kanuka (Kunzea ericoides)."
Manuka, as it is known in New Zealand and used for the production of
honey known for its antibacterial properties, is Leptospermum
scoparium. Leptospermum spp are also found in Australia further
confusing the issue.
There is also evidence that honey grown from Leptospermum
polygalifolium in Australia displays the same kind of catylase
resistant antibacterial action as that of L scoparium.
So it would be Leptospermum scoparium or L polygalifolium that you
need to grow for medicinal 'manuka' honey.
For a very comprehensive overview of honey therapy and manuka honey,
including references, vist the University of Waikato, Waikato Honey
Research Unit web page:
http://bio.waikato.ac.nz/honey/contents.shtml
Further information on the therapeutic use of manuka oil can be found here:
http://www.canmedbotanics.nl/manuka.htm
There is data that manuka from the East Cape area of NZ is
particularly high in active agents, see; Defining the North Island
Manuka Chemotype Resources.
M. Douglas, R. Anderson, J. van Klink, N. Perry & B. Smallfield. (July 2001).
A cached copy of this can be found @
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?num=50&hl=en&lr=&q=cache:XpnIF2DeWiMJ:www.crop.cri.nz/psp/reports/manuka.pdf+author:%22Douglas%22+intitle:%22Defining+North+Island+manuka+chemotype+resources%22+
According to the Australain National Botanic Gardens wesite L
scoparium is classified as:
"Frost-hardy. (Plants given an this rating will tolerate frosts to
-7°C in conditions of normal rainfall.)"
http://www.anbg.gov.au/leptospermum/leptospermum-scoparium.html
Some climatic data for Gisborne NZ in the heart of the East Cape.
"Weather statistics for national daily data files. For each site, the
monthly averages over the period indicated are shown for: rainfall
(mm), number of days with no rain (D_dry), maximum daily temperature
(°C), number of days above 25°C (D>25C) and 30°C (D>30C), minimum
temperature (°C), number of days below 0°C (D<0C)."
"Gisborne 1972-1995
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Rain: Mean: 52.8 77.2 101.5 104.5 87.4 106.1 114.5 81.1 98.9 63.6 65.5 66.3
D_dry: 21.5 17.3 18.3 16.6 17.7 13.8 14.9 15.6 14.8 17.6 18.6 20.1
TMax: Mean: 25.1 24.4 22.7 20.0 17.3 14.7 14.4 14.9 16.7 18.9 21.4 23.5
D>25C: 15.6 12.0 7.6 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.7 4.7 10.5
D>30C: 2.8 1.8 0.4 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.2 1.0
TMin: Mean: 13.9 13.9 12.3 9.8 7.0 5.2 5.0 5.4 6.7 8.5 10.6 12.6
D<0C: 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.3 1.3 1.4 0.9 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0"
http://www.waikato.ac.nz/igci/climpacts/Linked%20documents/Annex_1.pdf |
