Myoporum montanum R.Br.

Scrophulariaceae

Brown, R. (1810) Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae : 515. Type: Port Jackson - Hunter R., R. Brown; holo: BM?.

Boobialla; Myrtle, Native; Native Myrtle; Water Bush; Western Boobialla

Usually flowers and fruits as a shrub about 2-3 m tall.

Oil dots numerous, very variable in size, only the larger oil dots visible to the naked eye. Leaf blades about 3.5-14 x 0.8-1.8 cm, quite brittle when folded. Petioles about 1 cm long. Venation not very obvious on either the upper or lower surface of the leaf blades. Terminal buds and young shoots glabrous.

Corolla about 3-4.5 mm long and about 3-4 mm diam. Corolla tube and lobes hairy on the inner surface. Large oil dots visible on the corolla lobes. Style sparsely hairy.

Fruits about 4 mm diam. Endocarp thick and hard. Embryo small, cotyledons about as wide as the radicle.

Cotyledons about 9-12 x 3-4 mm. First pair of leaves glabrous, margins toothed, oil dots yellowish. At the tenth leaf stage: stem marked by numerous small warty bumps and the leaf blade with numerous large oil dots. Seed germination time 373 to 449 days.

Occurs in WA, NT, CYP, NEQ, CEQ and southwards as far as Victoria. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 900 m. Grows in a variety of habitats ranging from beach or dune vegetation, beach forest, open forest, wet sclerophyll forest to rain forest margins. Sometimes found in disturbed areas in upland or mountain rain forest. Also occurs in New Guinea.

This species may be poisonous but this needs conformation.

Myoporum acuminatum var. angustifolium Benth., Flora Australiensis 5: 4(1870), Type: Port Jackson and Mount Hunter, R. Brown, but chiefly in the interior of Queensland and N.S. Wales. Holo: ?. Myoporum cunninghamii Benth., Enumeratio Plantarum .. Huegel : 78(1837), Type: Queensland. Moreton Bay (A. Cunningham) Holo: ?.