Elaeodendron australe, commonly known as red olive-berry, red-fruited olive plum, or blush boxwood, is a species of flowering plant in the family Celastraceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a shrub or small tree with egg-shaped to oblong leaves with a wavy margin, yellowish green male and female flowers on separate plants and fleshy orange-red fruit.
Elaeodendron australe is a shrub or small tree that typically grows to a height of and has separate male and female plants. The leaves are mostly arranged in opposite pairs and are egg-shaped to elliptic or oblong with a wavy edge, long and wide on a petiole long. Elaeodendron australe is dioecious; that is, male and female flowers are borne on separate plants. The flowers are arranged in cymes in leaf axils, on a peduncle up to long, each flower on a pedicel long. The four petals are yellowish-green, about long. Male flowers have four stamens and female flowers have four staminodes. Flowering occurs in spring and summer and the fruit is a fleshy, oblong to oval, orange-red drupe long. The fruit is ripe from March to July and often persists on the tree for many months.[1] [2] [3] [4]
Elaeodendron australe was first formally described in 1805 by Étienne Pierre Ventenat in his book Jardin de la Malmaison.[5] [6]
In 1825, de Candolle described two varieties in Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:
Red olive-berry grows in eucalypt and rainforest ecotone areas, and in littoral or dry rainforest. It is found in north-eastern and central eastern Queensland and as far south as Tuross Head in New South Wales. An unusual thick-leaved form occurs in Mount Kaputar National Park and nearby western slopes and dry tableland gorges.
Seed germination is very slow, but reliable with around a 25% success rate after twelve months.