Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Gossia acmenoides

Flowers and leaves. Photographer Glen Leiper, Qld

Common name

Scrub ironwood

Family

Myrtaceae

Where found

Forest. Coast and ranges north from the Kiama district.

Notes

Shrub or tree to 18 m tall. Fruit fleshy. Bark smooth, mottled, shedding in small papery flakes. Young stems hairless. Leaves aromatic when rubbed, opposite each other, 2.5-8 cm long, 10-35 mm wide, tips pointed, upper surface dull to moderately glossy, lower surface hairless, oil glands not crowded. Flowers with 5 white or pinkish petals each 3-5 mm long. Flowers mostly in clusters of 2-4 flowers, sometimes single or in larger branched clusters. Fruit black, globular, 4–6 mm in diameter. Flowers Spring to Autumn.

Was Austromyrtus acmenoides.

Endangered population in the Sydney Basin Bioregion south of the Georges River.

Provisions of the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 No 63 relating to the protection of protected plants generally also apply to plants that are a threatened species or a part of a threatened ecological community.

NSW Threatened Species profile:  http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedSpeciesApp/profile.aspx?id=20278  (accessed 6 January, 2021)

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Gossia~acmenoides (accessed 6 January, 2021)