Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Melicytus angustifolius subsp. divaricatus

Flowering branches. Photographer Ken Thomas, Namadgi National Park, ACT

Branches with young fruit. Photographer Ken Thomas, Namadgi National Park, ACT

Shrub. Photographer Ken Thomas, Namadgi National Park, ACT

Common name

A Tree Violet

Family

Violaceae

Where found

Woodland, grassland, and rocky areas. Kosciuszko National Park, the mountains to the north, ACT, and tablelands south of the ACT.

Notes

Shrub to 2 m high or sprawling to prostrate. Fruit fleshy. Plants with rigid divaricate branches, most branch angles at 60-85 degrees from the trunk. Branches and short side branchlets rigid, tapered rather abruptly to thick spines. Fruit fleshy. Bark smooth, grey, with lenticels. Adult leaves alternating up the stems or in clusters of 2-6, 0.4-2.7 cm long, 1.2-4.5 mm wide, variable on the same plant, margins entire or or with 1 or 2 shallow teeth on each margin; tips blunt; surfaces hairless, or covered with minute, scattered hairs just above the base, lateral veins usually not apparent. Juvenile leaves usually resembling adult leaves, mid- to dark-green. Flowers honey-scented. Flowers cream, usually mauve or purplish towards the tips, 2.2–3.5 mm long, 3.5–3.8 mm wide at the widest point, tubular, the tube bell-shaped, with 5 lobes. Flowers in clusters of 1-3. Flowers Aug-Dec. Fruit uniformly or mottled bluish grey to white, sweet-tasting, 7-8 mm long.

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=in&name=Melicytus~angustifolius+subsp.~divaricatus (accessed 12 February, 2021)

Description partly based on Stajsic, V., Walsh, N.G., Douglas, R., Messina, A. & Molloy, B.P.J. (2015), A revision of Melicytus (Violaceae) in mainland Australia and Tasmania. Australian Systematic Botany 27(4): 317-320