''Denhamia silvestris'' is a shrub or small tree growing from

Picton, New South Wales Picton is a small town in the Macarthur Region of New South Wales, Australia, in the Wollondilly Shire, in south-western Sydney. The town is located approximately 90 kilometres south-west of Sydney, close to Camden and Campbelltown. It is al ...

(34° S) near Kroombit Tops, near

Gladstone, Queensland Gladstone () is a coastal city in the Gladstone Region, Queensland, Australia. Gladstone has an urban population of 34,703, and together with Boyne Island and Tannum Sands, had an estimated population of 50,317 at August 2021. This urban area co ...

(23° S). It occurs in

dry rainforest Dry or dryness most often refers to: * Lack of rainfall, which may refer to **Arid regions **Drought * Dry or dry area, relating to legal prohibition of selling, serving, or imbibing alcoholic beverages * Dry humor, deadpan * Dryness (medical) ...

eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as euca ...

and rainforest

ecotone An ecotone is a transition area between two biological communities, where two communities meet and integrate. It may be narrow or wide, and it may be local (the zone between a field and forest) or regional (the transition between forest and gras ...

areas. Common names include narrow leaved orangebark, orange bush and orange bark.

Description

Commonly seen as a densely dark green shrub two metres tall, though it can occasionally attain heights of 10 to 15 metres with a trunk diameter of 25 cm thick. The trunk is crooked and misshapen but without buttresses. Outer bark greyish brown or grey, fairly smooth but with

lenticel A lenticel is a porous tissue consisting of cells with large intercellular spaces in the periderm of the secondarily thickened organs and the bark of woody stems and roots of dicotyledonous flowering plants. It functions as a pore, providing a ...

s. The other part of live bark is green, brown and reddish. The exposed bark gives the common name, "Orange Bark". Leaves are 10 to 80 mm long, 2 to 13 mm wide, narrow

lanceolate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...

to ovate in shape. Leaf edges are curved over, sometimes with toothed edges, other times entire. Leaf tip sometimes curved. The leaf base slowly tapers away with a thin beginning of the leaf. Leaf stalks 2 to 5 mm long. Leaf venation evident on both sides, 5 to 8 pairs of lateral veins. Leaflets with

s, slender and smooth in shape, dark reddish brown or grey. New shoots downy.

Flowers & fruit

Pale green flowers form on

raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...

s from the leaf axils. Either singly, or in twos or threes. Flowering usually from October to January, though sometimes as late as Easter. The fruit is an orange capsule, roundish in shape. 3 to 7 mm in diameter. The capsule splits in two, with one to four glossy brown seeds, enclosed in an orange fleshy

aril An aril (pronounced ), also called an arillus, is a specialized outgrowth from a seed that partly or completely covers the seed. An arillode or false aril is sometimes distinguished: whereas an aril grows from the attachment point of the see ...

. Seeds egg shaped, 4 to 5 mm long. Fruit matures from February to May. Seed germination is quite reliable, with germination complete after 42 days.

References

* {{Taxonbar, from1=Q17237772, from2=Q6798028 Flora of New South Wales Flora of Queensland silvestris Trees of Australia Endemic flora of Australia Plants described in 1973