Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Olax stricta

Flowering stems. Photographer Jeff Jeanes, © 2021 Royal Botanic Gardens Board, Melbourne, Vic

Flowering stems. Photographer Don Wood, Morton National Park

Shrub. Photographer Arthur Chapman, Goonoo State Forest near Dubbo

Line drawings. a. flower; b. flowering and fruiting branch; c. fruit. E Mayfield, National Herbarium of Victoria, © 2021 Royal Botanic Gardens Board, Melbourne, Vic

Common name

Olax

Family

Olacaceae

Where found

Dry forest, woodland, heath, and shrubland on coastal dunes. Coastal. Ranges north from Deua National Park.

Notes

Shrub to about 2 m high, hairless. Fruit fleshy. Young branches striate, often covered with minute warts, slightly zig-zaggy. Leaves alternating up the stems, mostly 0.3–1.5 cm long, 1–3 mm wide, sometimes larger on the main branches, yellowish, more or less folded lengthwise, tips blunt to pointed and often mucronate or hooked. Flowers white to yellowish, with 5-6 petals each 3–6 mm long, free from each other or partly fused. Flowers single. Flowers throughout the year. Calyx enlarging after flowering to enclose the fruit. Fruit oval to oval, 4–8 mm long.

Rare Vic.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Olax~stricta  (accessed 23 January, 2021)