WILD OLIVE
Notelaea venosa
Plant Family
Oleaceae
Alternative Common Names
Veined mock-olive, smooth mock-olive, large-leaved mock-olive and large mock-olive.
Bushy shrub to 3 metres tall. But occasionally large, up to 16 metres tall and a trunk diameter of 25 cm. The trunk is often crooked, without buttresses of flanges. Grey brown bark is fairly smooth, but sometimes with some flaky irregularities.
Leaves - dull green, stiff, thick and superficially resembling eucalyptus leaves. Leaves prominently veiny on both sides. Leaf edges entire, though sometimes slightly wavy edged. Net veins regular and uniform in pattern. Leaves 6 to 16 cm long, 2 to 4 cm wide, lanceolate to ovate lanceolate in shape. Leaf stem 5 to 15 mm long. Oil dots present but difficult to distinguish.
Flowers - greenish white or yellow on racemes. Racemes are 1 to 3 cm long with five to nine flowers.
Fruit - matures from April to September, but can mature at any time of the year. A dark blue or black fleshy drupe 10 to 15 mm long with a single pointed seed, 8 to 12 mm long.
Flowering October to December.
Habitat
Grows in or near rainforest, and as an understorey in wet sclerophyll forest.
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