Common name: Black Apple, Wild Plum, yellow buttonwood, Black Plum, yellow bulletwood
Planchonella australis (R.Br.) Pierre APNI* Synonyms: Pouteria australis (R.Br.) Baehni APNI*
Achras australis R.Br. APNI*
Sideroxylon australe (R.Br.) F.Muell. APNI*
Description: Medium to tall-sized tree, trunk strongly fluted and flanged at base in larger trees; latex milky, usually obvious in young stems and petioles when cut or broken; buds and young stems with appressed brownish T-shaped hairs, stems soon becoming hairless, lenticels often prominent.
Leaves alternate, obovate, ovate or elliptic, mostly 8–16 cm long, 2–5 cm wide, apex obtuse, acute or acuminate and bluntly pointed, base tapering, thick and leathery, surfaces glabrescent, upper surface shiny or dull, lower surface shiny and paler green, pinnately veined with 10–14 pairs of lateral veins, distinct and raised on both surfaces; petiole 5–12 mm long.
Flowers axillary and often ramiflorous, solitary or 2–6-flowered clusters. Flowers bisexual, 5-merous. Sepals 5, fused at base. Petals 5, fused to halfway, 3–5 mm long, greenish or whitish. Stamens 5, staminodes 5 and alternating with the corolla lobes.
Fruit obovoid or globose, plum-like, 15–60 mm long, purplish or black and at first pruinose, with persistent style at apex and sepals at base; 2–5-seeded; seeds c. 2 cm long, narrowly ellipsoidal, compressed, brown and shiny with a whitish elongate scar.
Flowering: Fruit ripe September to November.
Distribution and occurrence: In most types of warmer rainforest, widespread on the coast and Upper Hunter Valley; north from the Illawarra.
NSW subdivisions: NC, CC, CWS
Other Australian states: Qld
Text by G J Harden; updated S. McCune (Aug 2019)
Taxon concept: Flora of NSW vol. 1 (1990); updated L. Murray June 2012
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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