SILVER NEEDLEWOOD

Small tree to 6m, with an open branched crown, or quite often a busy shrub to about 2m high.

Leaves - alternate, rigid, cylindrical, to about 8cm long and 15mm wide, with a sharp point at the tip, hoary when young but becoming smooth with age.

Flowers - white, hairless, tubular at base, the tube 5-6mm long, on hairless stalks bout 4mm long in short “spikes” or clusters of 20 or more.

Fruit - a woody capsule, swollen at the base and tapering to a point at the top, 20-30mm long, opening in halves longitudinally; seeds 2, winged on one side, the wing yellowish-white.

Flowering late spring-summer.

Indigenous uses - roots contain a drinkable watery sap, used as a substitute for pure water. The roots can be cut into lengths and stood on end to allow the liquid to drain out. The ends of the roots were also plugged with clay, and carried around while hunting or food gathering. The roots may also be blown at one end to expel the water. Nectar from flowers is eatable. Burnt bark was applied to burns and open sores, or was mixed with animal fat to make a healing ointment.