Description: Trees or shrubs.
Leaves alternate, simple, margins entire, toothed or lobed.
Conflorescences axillary or terminal, spike-like, flowers in sessile pairs within a common bract, bracts wide and concave, caducous. Flowers actinomorphic, small. Perianth tubular, apically dilated; tepals spreading with recurved apices, white. Anthers with distinct free filaments, inserted below dilated apex of perianth. Hypogynous glands 4, free, linear. Ovary sessile; ovules 2; style filiform, straight, scarcely thickened into a definite pollen presenter.
Follicle leathery, ± boat-shaped; seeds 2, compressed, winged at one end.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 9 spp., S Amer. & Aust. Aust. 7 spp. (endemic), Qld, N.S.W., Vic., Tas.
Timber of O. excelsa is suitable for furniture and interior joinery; it is moderately hard and pinkish in colour.
Text by G.J. Harden
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Leaves more than 8 cm long, variable in shape, margins mostly regularly toothed | Orites excelsus |
| Leaves less than 5 cm long, uniform in shape, margins entire or rarely with a few apical teeth | Orites lancifolius |
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