Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Tasmannia lanceolata

Male flowers and leaves. Photographer Don Wood, Badja State Forest NE of Cooma

Female flowers and leaves. Photographer Don Wood, Badja State Forest NE of Cooma

Leafy stems with ripe fruit. Photographer Don Wood, Monga National Park east of Braidwood

Common name

Mountain pepperbush

Family

Winteraceae

Where found

Forest and gullies, mainly at higher altitudes. Ranges and tablelands. Otherwise wdespread south and east of the Hume Highway. Rarely coastal.

Notes

Shrub or tree to 10 m high. Fruit fleshy. Bark smooth, with horizontal lines. Stems hairless, smooth, reddish when young. Leaves more or less aromatic when rubbed, with a peppery taste. Leaves alternating up the stems, whorled, or clustered, usually 4–12 cm long, 7–35 mm wide, hairless, both surfaces green but the lower surface slightly paler and sometimes glaucous, tips pointed to almost pointed; margins flat. Male and female flowers on different plants. Flowers white to yellowish, with 3-9 petals each 3–10 mm long. Flowers in clusters of 1-16 flowers. Flowers Spring to Summer. Fruit deep maroon or purplish to glossy black, roundish, 5-10 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=sp&name=Tasmannia~lanceolata (accessed 7 February, 2021)