Pittosporum bicolor
Hook. BanyallaErect, rather dense shrub or tree to 18 m high; branchlets densely tomentose. Leaves oblong, narrow-elliptic or lanceolate, mostly 2–9 cm long, 4–18 mm wide, upper surface green and finally glabrous, lower surface with persistent greyish indumentum; margins usually recurved. Flowers bisexual, solitary in axils; pedicels decurved, 4–25 mm long; sepals free, lanceolate to ovate, 2–8 mm long, finally reflexed, usually maroon-tinged; petals oblong to oblanceolate, 8–13 mm long, yellow internally, with purple-maroon veins and/or markings externally, recurved at apex. Capsule subglobose, c. 7–10 mm diam., yellowish, turning grey-black when ripe, pubescent, inner face dark and wrinkled; seeds numerous, 2.5–3.5 mm long, red. Flowers mainly Aug.–Dec.
VRiv, GipP, OtP, WaP, CVU, NIS, EGL, EGU, WPro, HSF, HNF, OtR, Strz, MonT, HFE, VAlp. Also NSW, Tas. Locally common in montane forests and fern gullies, occasionally ascending to the subalps in exposed scrub and heathlands. Seeds frequently germinate on the trunks of tree ferns.
Seedlings of P. bicolor are curious in having 3 cotyledons. The leaves of seedling plants also have a sparser indumentum than those of adult plants and are sometimes almost glabrous on both surfaces. Occasionally hybridizes with P. undulatum (see notes under Pittosporum bicolor × Pittosporum undulatum).
Walsh, N.G.; Albrecht, D.E. (1996). Pittosporaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 3, Dicotyledons Winteraceae to Myrtaceae, pp. 526–539. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Spinning
