Small tree to c. 6 m high; bark powdery-flaky, whitish or white-grey with horizontal banding. Juvenile and intermediate stage (e.g. seedlings, resprouting shrubs) leaves Holly-like with toothed margins and bristles. Later stages with leaves whorled; lamina narrowly elliptic to slightly rhombic or obovate, 45–70 mm long, 17–20 mm wide, dull, margin flat to slightly crenate, apex barely acute; petiole 5–12 mm long. Inflorescence corymbose umbels of many white-cream, aromatic, bisexual flowers; main rachis to 28 mm long; peduncles and pedicels 8–12 mm long. Fruit rigid, woody, globose on stout c. 2 mm long stalk; epicarp yellow-orange, bullate; distinctive ring of resin canals visible between exocarp and pithy mesocarp; endocarp ridged, sometimes suffused mauve or carmine; papery liner surrounding the 3–6 seeds per loculus, inserted to nearly top of chamber. Seeds subglobular, angular, c. 5 mm long, c. 3 wide, c. 2 mm deep, black-purple, shiny, inserted horizontally, not forming a cohering ball but surrounded by a papery liner.
Grows in coastal vine thickets and on sandstone (pavement, massif, slopes, ridges) in open woodland.
Home