Tristaniopsis laurina

A very commonly planted tree, reaching 30 metres tall in its natural habitat. It has smooth brown-grey mottled bark.

It grows naturally along most of the entire coast of NSW, into the east of Victoria, and north into Queensland to around the Sunshine Coast. There are also a few record on the western slopes of NSW but these appear to be erroneous.

It is a common tree in rainforest and sclerophyll forest on freshwater creeklines in gullies, in sandstone and on other substrates, especially in places like the Royal National Park and elsewhere. It can be seen with its roots entirely in moving water. In some locations, it can completely dominate the bed of creeks and streams, creating a matrix of stems and branches in amongst sandstone boulders.

Tristaniopsis spp. have simple and alternate leaves, often heavily crowded on stems. In this species, the leaves somewhat resemble leaves of the exotic Oleander, oblanceolate, to about 12 cm long and 3 cm wide, dark green above and pale greyish white below, with scattered oil glands and a prominent midvein.

Tristaniopsis spp. have 5-merous flowers which are somewhat staminate; the interesting aspect is the stamens are fused into clusters or fascicles, opposite the petals. The 5 petals are often circular. Inflorescences are often axillary, with branches of 3 flowers (triads) or flowers in dichasia. In this species, the flowers are produced in groups (dichasia – in opposite pairs) of 7-15, in leaf axils and near the terminals; deep yellow in colour which is an attractive feature, about 1 cm wide with stamens not overly showy, but up to 20 produced in each of the 5 small ‘clusters’, in each flower.

The fruit is a capsule with a distinctive shape, about 10 mm long.