There is an H. australis ssp. australis, which has fuzzy leaves top and bottom. Try googling that to see if that's what yours may be. Good luck!

Christine

I agree that it's most likely australis ssp. australis. Here's mine...

I've had mine for years and it's never bloomed. Grows like gangbusters, but never blooms. Ssp. tenuipes is only 3 years old and blooming up a storm. I know ssp. tenuipes doesn't take as much sun to bloom, but I keep ssp. austrlis on a top shelf in the GH, so it's getting all the light I can give it...

Can you post a pic of the one you got as ssp. tenuipes? The leaves should be a little less pointy at the tips than ssp. asutralis, very smooth and very shiny (and usually bronze) when young. As they age, they're more matte and light green.

Denise in Omaha

I also have two diff. Australis to which I have no idea what the correct ID'are. Like yours I have never gotten any bronze leaves on my Australis...EVER! It gets a couple hours of morning sun, so that can't be the reason it doesn't have bronze leaves? All the new growths on that are always light green only.

I also have one very similar to Denise's that I received a cutting from Mentha(Thanks)over a year ago...and it is fuzzy/hairy. Also the new leaves are also light green.

I can post pics if you want to see them?

Mike

If you get a camera, just be sure to get one without too many bells and whistles. They all have settings, mind you, but I keep mine set on the basic "point and shoot" and all I really cared about figuring out was where to set "macro" to get good closeups, and how to shut off the flash. They're very user friendly for the most part.

Denise in Omaha

The loading onto the computer is the easiest part, really. All these programs are as easy as 1-2-3, really. And I'm no spring chicken - let's just say Ike was in office when I was born... It's as the gecko says, "Easy peezy lemon squeezy!" Just buy the camera, load the software, hook 'er up to the computer... after you've taken photos, upload them (or is it "download" - I always get them mixed up!!), then you can alter them - crop to get rid of any extraneous background stuff, reduce the size of the file. Once you do it a couple of times, you'll be thinking, "Oh, and I thought these kids were SO smart!" HA! Be adventuresome! We wanna see your plants!

Denise in Omaha

You HAVE to learn how to post pictures, no questions asked. You brought it on yourself BTW. All this talk about your collection leaves way too much for our imaginations. LOL.

Like Denise said, getting the pictures on your computer is the easiest part. Once you connect the camera to the computer, it automatically directs you where you need to go, asks you what you want to do, does what you ask it to do. And since Denise threw in a commercial blurb, here's another one. . . so easy a caveman can do it. . .

And. . . you can play around with it in the privacy of your own home, no one has to see the end result until you want them to. . . If my mom can do it, trust me. . . you can do it too.

To add to your original question, even tho it sounds like you got the mystery solved, I have australis ssp. australis and ssp. tenuipes (both from Denise. . thanks :) and my ssp. tenuipes gets the bronze color on new growth, and lots of it. It doesn't get direct light, just bright indirect. I grow it according to Denise's recommendation, which is "doesn't necessarily like bright light". With that being said, I'm wondering if you are giving it too much light, which in this case is washing it out, whereas the leaves may be bronze as a benefit of less light. Just a thought.

Maid~