Myrtles

Backhousia myrtifolia Hook. & Harv. (Myrtaceae), commonly called grey myrtle, cinnamon myrtle or ironwood, is a small evergreen tree or large shrub 5-10 m tall (occasionally to 20 m in sheltered forest), endemic to coastal and subcoastal eastern Australia from southern Queensland to southern New South Wales. It typically grows on moist sheltered slopes in subtropical and warm-temperate rainforest, often along creeks. The bark is grey and finely fibrous. Leaves are opposite, ovate to lanceolate, 3-7 cm long and 1.5-3 cm wide, leathery, with prominent pinnate venation and conspicuous oil glands; when crushed they emit a sweet spicy aniseed-cinnamon aroma. Inflorescences are terminal three- to seven-flowered cymes; each flower has a persistent five-lobed creamy white calyx that becomes papery and accrescent, four to five small white petals, and numerous spreading stamens, producing a delicate starlike effect that gives rise to the cultivated name 'lasiandra'. The fruit is a small enclosed nutlet retained within the persistent calyx.