''Bridelia exaltata'', known as the brush ironbark or scrub ironbark, is a tree of eastern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It occurs in and on the margins of the drier

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

s, and also by streams, often in association with the black bean, up to an elevation of 600 metres above sea level. It occurs from

Seal Rocks, New South Wales Seal Rocks is a small coastal settlement in the Mid-Coast Council local government area, in the Mid North Coast region of New South Wales, Australia, north-north-east of Sydney. It is famous for its many premier surfing beaches (including Light ...

Maryborough, Queensland Maryborough ( ) is a city and a suburb in the Fraser Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Maryborough had a population of 15,287. Geography Maryborough is located on the Mary River in Queensland, Australia, approximate ...

. The generic name honours

Samuel Elisée Bridel-Brideri Samuel Elisée Bridel-Brideri (28 November 1761 in Crassier, Vaud – 7 January 1828) was a Swiss-German bryologist. He studied at the University of Lausanne, and at the age of 19 began work as a tutor to the princes of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. ...

, an expert on mosses. The specific name ''exaltata'' refers to the height of the tallest specimens.

Description

A medium-sized tree, occasionally as tall as 35 metres and with a stem diameter of 90 cm. The trunk is cylindrical and not buttressed at the base. The bark is greyish brown, rough and hard, but with some corky flakes. It can resemble the trunk of the grey persimmon. Small branches are green or brown without hairs, but with wrinkles and

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 ...

Leaves

The leaves are alternate on the stem, simple in form with smooth entire edges, elliptic or narrow elliptical in shape, 5 to 12 cm long and 2 to 5 cm wide with a blunt tip. They are round at the base, glossy green above, and a duller grey-green and hairy below. Leaf veins are seen on both surfaces, and raised underneath. There are around 15 pairs of lateral leaf veins at an angle of 60 degrees to the midrib. Leaf stalks are hairy, 3 to 5 mm long, purple or green. The leaves are thought to be poisonous to cattle. Bridelia exaltata foliage

Flowers and fruit

Yellowish green flowers form in July. The male and female flowers are separate, but often on the same tree. The fruit is a glossy

drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or '' pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel'') ...

, 1 cm in diameter, and orange-brown in colour with small green or yellow spots. Inside is a two-celled "stone", which is 8 mm in diameter. Usually, there is one seed in each cell. The fruit is ripe from March to July, and eaten by a variety of birds.

References

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q4966125 exaltata Flora of New South Wales Flora of Queensland Trees of Australia Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller