Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Pittosporum undulatum
Common name
Sweet Pittosporum, Native Daphne, Mock Orange
Family
Pittosporaceae
Where found
Forest, woodland, grassy areas, roadsides, coastal areas, and along streams. Coast, ranges, and the eastern edge of the tablelands. An invasive weed in the Sydney area. Doubtfully naturalisd in the ACT.
Notes
Shrub or tree to 25 m high. Fruit at first fleshy, becoming dry before opening. Bark grey to brownish, smooth to rough and scaly or finely fissured and with vertical rows of pale lenticels. Younger stems hairless to hairy with simple and 2-branched hairs (needs a hand lens or a macro app on your phone/tablet to see). Leaves alternating up the stems or clustered at the ends of the branches in pseudo-whorls, 5–17 cm long, 15–50 mm wide, upper surface glossy, lower surface paler and dull, margins usually wavy or occasionally flat, tips pointed. Leaves aromatic when rubbed. Flowers bisexual but functionally unisexual with male and female flowres on different plants. Flowers fragrant, white to cream, 10–20 mm long, with a bell-shaped tube and 5 'petals' 10-18 mm long, curved backwards. Flowers in clusters of 4-5 flowers, the clusters close together. Flowers mainly Aug.–Oct. Fruit yellow, becoming orange and eventually brown, 8-16 mm long, opening by 2 valves. Seeds orange to red or red-brown, sticking together in a mass.
General Biosecurity Duty all NSW. Always check native vegetation requirements before undertaking control of a weedy native plant.
Occasionally hybridises with Pittosporum bicolor in the Bega district and in Vic. Hybrid plants tend to have foliage with persistent hairs on lower surface like that of Pittosporum bicolor, flowers of Pittosporum undulatum, and fruits with orange seeds.
Possibly occasionally hybridises with Pittosporum revolutum.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Pittosporum~undulatum (accessed 1 February, 2021)
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