Evergreen shrub or tree to 30 m high, frequently with adventitious shoots; trunk to 2.5 m diam.; young foliage orange-red; young stems hairy. Leaves ovate, trullate or triangular, firm, very shortly petiolate; apex rounded to acute; margins irregularly and bluntly toothed; base cuneate to truncate; lamina 10–25 mm long, 5–18 mm wide, gland-dotted and deep green above, paler beneath; stipules 2–4 mm long, membranous. Male inflorescence with 1–3 flowers; perianth 6-lobed, 2–3 mm long; stamens 8–12, filaments hairy. Female inflorescence ovoid, 2–4 mm long, with 3 flowers, surrounded by leathery, hairy involucre bearing recurving glandular scales. Cupule 6–7 mm long; nuts 5–6 mm long, usually 3 per cupule, the outer pair triquetrous, the central one biconvex. Flowers Nov.–Jan.
GipP, CVU, WPro, HSF, HNF, OtR, Strz, VAlp. Also Tas. Restricted to cool, shaded forests, often in sheltered valleys. Occasionally (in absence of fire) growing in pure stands, but also as understorey in tall eucalypt forest or even with Eucalyptus pauciflora (e.g. Baw Baw Plateau).
Source:
Entwisle, T.J. (1996). Fagaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 3, Dicotyledons Winteraceae to Myrtaceae, pp. 89–90. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
