Symplocos stawellii or the White Hazelwood is a rainforest tree growing in 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...

. It often grows along creeks in gullies, in tropical and sub-tropical rainforests. The natural distribution is from Gerringong Creek in the upper Kangaroo Valley

Kangaroo Valley, New South Wales

Kangaroo Valley is a valley along the Kangaroo River in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia, located west of the seaside in the City of Shoalhaven...

 (34° S) of 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 Atherton Tableland

Atherton Tableland

The Atherton Tableland is a fertile plateau which is part of the Great Dividing Range in Queensland, Australia. It is located west to south-south-west inland from Cairns, well into the tropics, but its elevated position provides a climate suitable for dairy farming. It has an area of around...

 (17° S) in tropical 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...

. Also occurring on Lord Howe Island

Lord Howe Island

Lord Howe Island is an irregularly crescent-shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, directly east of mainland Port Macquarie, and about from Norfolk Island. The island is about 11 km long and between 2.8 km and 0.6 km wide with an area of...

 and New Guinea

New Guinea

New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...

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Description

A small to medium sized tree, up to 30 metres tall and 80 cm in diameter, but usually much smaller. The trunk is straight and cylindrical, the butt is flanged in larger specimens.

The bark is fairly smooth; grey or fawn in colour. Often with horizontal bands. The outer surface sometimes has vertical pustules and horizontal cracks. Leaves alternate, firm and toothed, elliptic in shape 8 to 16 cm long with a rounded leaf tip. The leaf stalk is 9 to 20 mm and smooth. Veins are visible on both sides, more prominent below with the net veins visible.

The fragrant white flowers form in panicles between the months of April to July. The fruit is a fleshy 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...

. Blue/black and egg shaped maturing in October to April. The brown pear-shaped seeds are 8 mm long. Fruit eaten by various rainforest birds such as Rose-crowned Fruit-dove

Rose-crowned Fruit-dove

The Rose-crowned Fruit Dove, Ptilinopus regina, also known as Pink-capped Fruit Dove or Swainson's Fruit Dove, is a medium-sized, up to 22 cm long, green fruit dove with a grey head and breast, an orange belly, whitish throat, yellow-orange iris, and greyish green bill and feet. It has a...

 and Superb fruit-dove

Superb Fruit-Dove

The Superb Fruit Dove , also known as the Purple-crowned Fruit Dove , is a medium-sized , colourful fruit-dove in the family Columbidae....

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