ELLANGOWAN POISON BUSH
Myoporum deserti
Plant Family
Scrophulariaceae
Alternative Common Names
Dogwood, turkey bush, poison bush, pencil bush, carrot bush.
Branched erect shrub, 1-4m high, the branches thin, greyish-brown and usually beset with small warty swellings.
Leaves - alternate, thick, narrow 2-5cm long, 3-6mm wide, narrowed into a short stalk.
Flowers - white, bell-shaped, about 8mm long, with 5 rounded lobes, borne singly or in groups of 2-4 on slender drooping stalks 5-10mm long in the leaf axils.
Fruit - more or less globular yellow drupe, about 6mm diameter. Fruit often eaten by emus and plain turkeys; hence the common name.
Flowering winter-spring.
Habitat
Belah-rosewood, bimble box, red box, mallee and cypress pine communities, in situations ranging from level plains with red earths and calcareous red earths to stony hillsides with skeletal soils
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