Male flowers. Photo: Russell Best, Murray Sunset National Park

Flowers and leaves. Photo: Don Wood, Scotia Sanctuary, NSW

Fruit and leaves. Photo: Don Wood, Scotia Sanctuary, NSW

Flowering shrub. Photo: Don Wood, Scotia Sanctuary, NSW

Fruiting shrub. Photo: Don Wood, Scotia Sanctuary, NSW

Common Name

Shrubby Rice-flower, Mallee Rice-flower

Family

Thymelaeaceae

Notes

Shrub to 4m tall.  Leaves opposite each other, 0.7-4.4cm long, 1-4.5mm wide, linear to flat, hairless, with pointed tips.  Male and female flowers on different plants.  Flowers often small (less than 3mm across).  Flowers greenish yellow or pale cream, tubular, with 4 lobes.  Flower heads hemispherical at the tops of the stems, subtended by 2 -4 leaf-like bracts.  Male flowers with 13-100 flowers per head, female with 7-12 per head.  Fruit greenish yellow to orange or red.

Description and photo (as Pimelea microcephala) in G.M. Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales page 506

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Pimelea~microcephala