Red luster

Syncarpia glomulifera, the turpentine tree or red luster, is a tall evergreen tree in the family Myrtaceae endemic to coastal and near-coastal eastern Australia, from southern Queensland through New South Wales. It typically reaches 25–45 m tall on favourable sites, with a straight, columnar trunk clad in characteristically thick, soft, deeply fibrous and stringy red-brown bark that gives the species fire resistance and slow combustion. The leaves are arranged in apparent whorls of four — actually two opposite pairs held close together on short internodes — and are ovate to elliptic, 5–11 cm long, dark glossy green above, paler and softly white-pubescent below, with a leathery texture. Inflorescences are dense, sessile, head-like clusters of seven flowers borne in upper leaf axils. The flowers have creamy white to pale yellow stamens that dominate the display, around 1 cm long. The fruits in each cluster fuse along their bases to form a hard, woody, glomerule-like compound capsule 1–2 cm wide — the diagnostic 'syncarp' from which the genus takes its name.