Pittosporum umbellatum

Detailed description

Small trees 3-12 m tall; branchlets greyish-brown to grey, young branchlets sparsely brown-tomentose soon glabrate. Leaves subverticillate, dark green adaxially, paler beneath, glabrous, coriaceous, margins thin, flat or slightly undulate, brown-pilose when young, thickened, revolute and glabrate when mature, nerves raised on both surfaces, usually brown to white-tomentose near base, secondary veins 8-15 per side, anastomosing, obscure above, distinct beneath. Juvenile leaves obovate to lanceolate, entire, occasionally crenate, sometimes deeply lobed or pinnatifid; adult leaves elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, entire, rarely crenate, acute or acuminate at apex, acute or attenuate at base, 25-100 x 15-50 mm, petioles 6-122 x 1-2 mm, brown-tomentose when young, glabrate. Inflorescences terminal, sometimes becoming lateral, umbellate, umbels up to 20-flowered; pedicels 4-25 mm long, accrescent in fruit, brown-tomentose, subtended by an approximate whorl of leaves and numerous caducous, glabrous, ciliate bud scales up to 12 mm long. Sepals slightly imbricate at base, lanceolate, acute to acuminate, 4.5-9.0 x 1.5-3.0 mm, sparsely ciliate; petals linear-oblong, subacute to obtuse, 11.0-12.5 x 2.5-5.0 mm, loosely coherent at the base, spreading from above the middle, dull red, pink, cream, white or yellow; stamens 4-8 mm long, anthers sagittiform to elliptic-oblong, 1.0-3.0 x 0.6-1.3 mm. Pistil at anthesis slightly shorter or longer than the stamens; ovary 2.5-3.5 x 1.0-3.0 mm, villous; style 3-4 mm; stigma capitate, obscurely 4-lobed or truncate. Capsules tetragonous or 4-lobed, 2(-3)-valved, 7-12 mm diameter, green to black, sparsely pubescent; valves concave in transverse section, < 1 mm thick, rim distinctly thickened, coriaceous; seeds 9-14 black, irregular.