FoI
Brush Cherry
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Brush Cherry
E Introduced Photo: Aarti Khale
Common name: Brush Cherry, Scrub cherry, Creek lilly-pilly, Creek satinash, watergum
Botanical name: Syzygium australe    Family: Myrtaceae (Bottlebrush family)
Synonyms: Eugenia australis, Jambosa australis, Eugenia myrtifolia

Brush Cherry is an evergreen shrub or small tree with flaky bark. It can reach heights of 20 m or more in the wild, but is mostly 8-10 m with a short, crooked bole, in cultivation. Young leafy twigs are 4-angled to shortly 4-winged, wings joining above each node to produce a small pocket. Leaves are elliptic to obovate, 3-10 cm long, 1-3 cm wide, tip short-tapering, base wedge-shaped, hairless and glossy, lower surface paler; lateral and intramarginal veins generally visible; oil glands scattered, often faint; leaf-stalk is 3-10 mm long. Inflorescences are mostly botryoids, at branch-ends and in the upper axils. Petals are 4-6 mm long, free and spreading, white. Stamens 15-20 mm long. Fruit is obovoid, 15-25 mm long, about 15 mm diam., reddish pink to red; seed usually solitary, embryo solitary with smooth cotyledons. Brush Cherry is native to Australia.

Identification credit: Aarti Khale Photographed in Lalbagh, Bangalore.

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