Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Claoxylon australe
Common name
Brittlewood
Family
Euphorbiaceae
Where found
Forest and wet gullies. Coast, ranges, and occasionally the eastern part of the tablelands.
Notes
Tree or shrub to about 9 m high. Fleshy arils on the seeds. Bark light brown or grey to cream, fairly smooth, with blisters and lenticels. Branchlets hairless or hairy with fine hairs, with prominent lenticels. Small branches pale and brittle. Leaves alternating up the stems, 6–15 cm long, 20–50 mm wide, margins toothed or scalloped, sometimes obscurely so, surfaces glossy or dull, hairless or hairy with fine hairs, veins prominent on both surfaces. 1–5 raised glands at the tops of the leaf stalks. Male and female flowers usually on different plants, occasionally on the same plant. Flowers with 3-4 greenish 'petals' each about 2 mm long. Flowers in racemes, male racemes 50–80 mm long, the flowers single or in 2-6 flowered groups along the axis of the raceme, female racemes 30–50 mm long, the flowers single along the axis, rarely a single female flower in a male cluster. Seed cases green, drying purplish black, 3-lobed, 5–6 mm in diameter, containing 3 seeds with bright red arils which completely cover the seeds.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Claoxylon~australe (accessed 7 January, 2021)
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