BUDDA

Large shrub or small tree 6-10 m tall and is found throughout the region. The foliage is aromatic particularly when burnt. Branchlets hairless, the bark rough, dark-brown to almost blackish, with a rather regular pattern of oblong segments.

Leaves - alternate, hairless, rather sticky, aromatic, bright green, linear-lanceolate, to 60mm long, 1-7mm wide, gradually narrowed at the base, usually with a hooked tip.

Flowers - white or pale-cream, on sticky curved stalks 5-10mm long, borne singly or in groups of 2-3 in the leaf axils, each flower bell-shaped with 5 unequal rounded lobes, 11-18mm long, hairless or sparsely downy outside, bearded in parts inside.

Fruit - almost dry, silky-haired and somewhat pointed drupe, 4-6mm long.

Flowering mainly spring, with a secondary flowering in autumn; an occasional flower may be present at any time of the year.

Indigenous uses - branches used to make brooms; leaves put in laundry tubs to make clothes smell pleasant; the local Kamilaroi people call it badha and the smoke is regarded as sacred; timber used to smoke dwellings after a death; if a person was sad and restless after a death the house was also smoked.