Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Monotoca scoparia
Common name
Prickly broom-heath, Broom-heath
Family
Ericaceae
Where found
Forest, woodland, and heath. Widespread.
Notes
Shrub to about 2 m high. Leaf tips sharp. Fruit somewhat fleshy. Branchlets rough to hairless. Leaves alternating up the stems, 0.6–2.2 cm long, 1–4 mm wide; margins entire or with minute teeth towards the tips, surfaces hairless, upper surface more or less convex, lower surface with 3–5 striate veins, dull pale green to whitish, often glaucous, tips mucronate, stalks rough. Flower stalks yellow-green, rough, 0.5–1.6 mm long. Male and female flowers on different plants. Flowers white to cream, tubular, the tube bell-shaped, 0.9–2.6 mm long, hairless, with 5 lobes 0.8–1.5 mm long, hairless or warty. Bracts subtending the flowers persisting. Flowers in 2–9-flowered clusters, sometimes single. Flowering: most of the year. Fruit fleshy, yellow to orange.
Family was Epacridaceae.
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=Monotoca~scoparia (accessed 24 January, 2021)
This identification key and fact sheets are available as a free mobile application:
