Exocarpos acerbus
(R.Br.) Lepschi Leafless Sour-bushWiry broom-like shrub to c. 1.5 m high, glabrous; branches terete, divaricate, striate, resinous, lustrous. Leaves minute, scale-like, the bases persisting as scars. Male flowers to c. 7 in spikes 3–4 mm long; tepals cordate, c. 0.7 mm long, obtuse, slightly thickened near apex, yellowish; stamens c. 0.2 mm long; style obsolete. Female flowers usually solitary, rarely 2–4 together; receptacle c. 1 mm long; tepals triangular, c. 0.7 mm long, obtuse, yellowish, persistent; staminodes c. 0.2 mm long. Drupe globose to ovoid, 6–8(–12) mm long, often streaked purplish, fleshy, edible but sour.
VRiv, NIS, EGL, EGU, HSF, HNF, MonT, HFE, VAlp. VRiv, NIS, EGL, EGU, HSF, HNF, MonT, HFE, VAlp. Also WA, NSW, ACT. In Victoria confined to the north-east and east where occasional in dry, scrubby montane forests and woodlands, rarely near the coast, often in rocky soil.
Formerly placed in the monotypic Omphacomeria, which recent molecular phylogenetic study has shown to be nested in Exocarpos (Pillon et al. 2023).