Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Schizomeria ovata

Fruit and leaves. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Bodalla State Forest near Bodalla

Leafy stem with green fruit. Photographer Jackie Miles

Trunk.Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Tapin Tops National Park north of Gloucester

Common name

Crabapple, White Birch, White Cherry, Snowberry

Family

Cunoniaceae

Where found

Rainforest and along streams. Coastal north from Mimosa Rocks National Park south of Bermagui. Ranges north from Deua National Park.

Notes

Tree to 35 m high, sometimes suckering and forming thickets. Fruit fleshy. Bark grey and smooth at first, becoming rough, hard-corky, finely fissured. Stems hairless. Leaves opposite each other, 4–15 cm long, 20–50 mm wide (larger on juvenile shoots), leathery, margins bluntly toothed to almost entire. Flowers with 5 narrow white petals with forked tips, and 5 white petal-like sepals. Petals about 2.5 mm long. Sepals shortly tubular, the lobes about 2-3 mm long. Flowers in clusters 5–12 cm long. Flowering spring. Fruit white to yellowish, oval to round, 10–17 mm in diameter.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Schizomeria~ovata (accessed 6 February, 2021)