Diospyros pentamera (Woolls & F.Muell. ex F.Muell.) F.Muell.

Mueller, F.J.H. von (1867) Austral. Veg.: 35.

Ebony, Myrtle; Plum, Grey; Myrtle Ebony; Grey Plum; Grey Persimmon; Black Myrtle; Grey Ebony

Tree to 35 m. Outer dead bark brown to almost black.

Terminal buds and young shoots clothed in pale brown prostrate hairs. Leaf blades about 34-11 x 1-4 cm, much paler on the underside (yellowish green). Glands about 2-12 small, dark, scattered on the underside of the leaf blade. Lateral veins 7-11 pairs, forming a double series of loops inside the blade margin.

Male and female flower outer surface of the calyx and corolla densely clothed in pale (calyx gold, corolla white) prostrate hairs. Male inflorescence axes solitary or a few in leaf axils, each with 3-10 flowers. Male flowers calyx tube 1.5-1.7 mm long, lobes (4-)5(-6), 1.2-1.4 mm long; corolla tube 1.5-1.7 mm long, lobes mostly 5, 3 mm long; stamens 15-20, 3.7-4.5 mm long, filaments fused at base and fused to corolla tube; pistillode ca. 1 mm long. Female flowers calyx tube 2.5-3 mm long, lobes 4 or 5, 2-2.5 mm long; corolla tube 1.5-2.2 mm long, lobes 4 or 5, 3-3.8 mm long; staminodes 10-12.

Fruits seated on a 5-lobed sericeous persistent calyx appressed to fruit. Fruits +/- globular, about 14-18 mm long x 10-15 mm wide, 1-seeded; seeds 8-12mm long.

Cotyledons linear, about 10-12 x 1 mm. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade with a few scattered hairs on both the upper and lower surfaces; scattered oil dots easily seen with a lens. Seed germination time 143 days.

Endemic to Australia, occurs in NEQ, CEQ and southwards as far as south-eastern New South Wales. Altitudinal range in NEQ from 400-1100 m. Grows in various types of rain forest often associated with Kauri Pine (Agathis robusta).

Fruit eaten by several species of birds. Cooper & Cooper (1994).