Hedycarya angustifolia, also known as the Native Mulberry or Australian Mulberry, is a rainforest

Rainforest

Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...

 plant of south and eastern Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. The habitat is cool gullies and moist temperate forests, often at high altitude. Occasionally seen bordering sclerophyll

Sclerophyll

Sclerophyll is the term for a type of vegetation that has hard leaves and short internodes . The word comes from the Greek sclero and phyllon ....

 forests.

The range of natural distribution is from King Island

King Island, Tasmania

King Island is one of the islands that make up the state of Tasmania, Australia. It is located in the Roaring Forties of Bass Strait, off the north-western tip of the main island of Tasmania, about half way between Tasmania and the mainland state of Victoria. The southernmost point is called Stokes...

 (39° S) in Bass Strait

Bass Strait

Bass Strait is a sea strait separating Tasmania from the south of the Australian mainland, specifically the state of Victoria.-Extent:The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Bass Strait as follows:...

 up to the Australian mainland in the state of Victoria

Victoria (Australia)

Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

, through New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

 to the Conondale Range

Conondale Range

The Conondale Range is a mountain range in Queensland, located between Maleny, Kenilworth, Kilcoy and Jimna. The range is the most westerly part of the Sunshine Coast hinterland and part of the Great Dividing Range. The highest point on the range is Mount Langley reaching 868 m above sea level...

 (26° S) in the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast

Sunshine Coast, Queensland

The Sunshine Coast is an urban area in South East Queensland, north of the state capital of Brisbane on the Pacific Ocean coastline. Although it does not have a central business district, by population it ranks as the 10th largest metropolis in Australia and the third largest in...

 of south east Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

.

Description

A shrub or small tree, though it occasionally can reach a height of 20 metres and a trunk diameter of 40 cm. The trunk is usually crooked with more than one main stem. Bark is thin; grey or fawn in colour, fairly smooth with some vertical lines.

Leaves alternate, toothed, ovate to lanceolate with a pointed tip; 8 to 20 cm long. Leaf stalk 8 to 20 mm long. Midrib is raised below the leaf, but sunken above. Leaf veins easily noticed.

Greenish flowers form on a raceme

Raceme

A raceme is a type of inflorescence that is unbranched and indeterminate and bears pedicellate flowers — flowers having short floral stalks called pedicels — along the axis. In botany, axis means a shoot, in this case one bearing the flowers. In a raceme, the oldest flowers are borne...

 like cyme in the months of August to October. The fruit is a fleshy yellow drupe

Drupe

In botany, a drupe is a fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a shell of hardened endocarp with a seed inside. These fruits develop from a single carpel, and mostly from flowers with superior ovaries...

, ripening from December to January.