Notelaea longifolia

Common name:                Large Mock-olive 

• Also long-leaved-olive

Conservation status:  . . .

Etymology:   

• New Latin, from not- + Greek elaia olive tree

• Longifolia: from longi- (Latin) meaning long and -folia (Latin) meaning leaf

Flowers:                  

• Pale yellow flowers usually form between April and October on racemes at the leaf axils

• Racemes are 2 cm long

Fruit:                         

• Fruit matures from November to March

• Being a dark blue or black fleshy drupe 10 to 16 mm long with a single pointed or egg shaped seed, 8 to 12 mm long

• Regeneration from fresh seed is slow, taking up to a year

Leaves:         

• Leaves variable in size and shape

• Some narrow lanceolate, others lanceolate and some a broad ovate shape

• 3 to 16 cm long, 1 to 6 cm wide

• Sometimes with a prominent tip, other times blunt

• Leaves gradually tapering at the stem end

• Dark green above, duller below, stiff and dry to touch

• Leaf stalks absent or up to 8 mm long

• Leaves veiny, but net veins are irregular and not as distinct as in Notelaea venosa

Stem & branches: 

• The trunk is often crooked, the crown wide and dense

• Grey brown bark is scaly, fissured and hard

• Branchlets have small pale lenticels, otherwise pale brown and slender

Roots:         

Habit:        

• A very common shrub or small tree 

• Usually a shrub is around 3 m tall

• Occasionally it can be up to 9 m tall, with a trunk diameter of 30 cm

Habitat:   

• x 

Distribution:                  

• Eastern Australia

• In or adjacent to rainforest from Mimosa Rocks National Park (37° S) to Bamaga (11° S) in far north Queensland

Additional notes:     

• An attractive ornamental plant