- Image: Foliage and fruit
- Image: Foliage
- Image: Fruit closeup
- Image: Form
- Image: Foliage
- Image: Leaf closeup with insect
Image: Foliage and fruit
Straggling shrub to 6m high in drier rainforest or on the boundary of open forest, from the coast to the escarpment ranges and upper Hunter Valley; north from the Illawarra region NSW. Not found in the very driest of scrubs. In the open it is usually compact, but can be leggy under a canopy.
Branchlets can be dotted with elongated lenticels. Strong sunlight intensifies the red new growth.
Leaves broad-elliptic to rhombic or obovate, mostly 2-8 cm, 2-5 cm wide, stiff, prominently veined, margins with 2-4 pairs of spine-tipped teeth, smooth; petiole 1-3 mm long.
Useful as an understorey plant in rainforest plantings. Grown in gardens for its attractive, holly-like foliage, enjoys well-drained soil, extra nutrients and mulch but can tolerate neglect. Sooty mould can be a problem.
Image: Foliage
Flowers are small creamish/green axillary racemes, male and female flowers on separate plants from November-December.
Fruit is a brown, three lobed capsule around 7mm in diameter splitting to reveal one seed. Ripe September-November or throughout the year.
Alchornea after Stanesby Alchorne 1727-1800, a collector of British plants; ilicifolia from Latin “ilex” the great scarlet (holly) or Holm oak, Quercus ilex, and “folium” leaf because of the holly-like leaves.
Food plant for the Common Albatross butterfly (Appias paulina ega).
Image: Fruit closeup
Plants in EUPHORBIACEAE are members of the SPURGE family, ecologically diverse, occupying most habitats and exhibiting nearly every growth form used by plants. Most are herbs, but some, especially in the tropics, are also shrubs or trees.
Annuals, perennials, trees, succulent species can all be found in the single genus Euphorbia.
A number of plants of the Spurge family are of considerable economic importance. Prominent plants include Manioc, the Castor bean, and the Para rubber tree. Many are grown as ornamental plants, such as Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima).
Image: Form
In the EUPHORBIACEAE leaves are alternate, seldom opposite, with stipules. They are mainly simple, but where compound, are always palmate, never pinnate. Stipules may be reduced to hairs, glands, or spines, or in succulent species are sometimes absent.
The radially symmetrical flowers are unisexual, with the male and the female flowers usually occurring on the same plant. As can be expected from such a large family, there is a wide variety in the structure of the flowers. They can be monoecious or dioecious. The stamens (the male organs) can number from 1 to 10 (or even more). The female flowers are hypogynous, that is, with a superior ovary.
The family contains a large variety of phytotoxins (toxic substances produced by plants), mainly diterpene esters, alkaloids, glycosides, and ricin-type toxins.
Image: Foliage
Strangely hard to propagate from seed, as it self sows easily. This suggest dormancy. Cuttings strike easily.
An exceptionally hardy plant, though can be slow growing. Useful as an understorey plant in rainforest plantings.
Image: Leaf closeup with insect
The surface of the leaves are hard and shiny, helping them avod moisture loss by transpiration. A small fly is shown here resting on the leaf surface.