Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Exocarpos cupressiformis
Common name
Cherry Ballart, Native Cherry, Ballee
Family
Santalaceae
Where found
Forest and woodland. Widespread.
Notes
Shrub or tree to about 10 m high, Bark grey, fissured. Branchlets cylindrical, hairy or scurfy at first, almost hairless, grooved, erect to weeping. Leaves alternating along the stems, scale-like, triangular, to 0.05 cm long, or 0.2-0.5 cm long on new growth, green to yellowish green, bronzy when stressed by drought or cold. Flowers greenish yellow, 1-2 mm in diameter, usually with 5 'petals'. Flowers in short, dense, spikes or clusters to 8 mm long; usually only 1 flower in each spike producing fruit. Stalk of the nut fleshy, yellow, orange, or red, edible. Flowering: throughout the year but mainly October–May.
All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Exocarpos~cupressiformis (accessed 22 January, 2021)
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