Cabbage Gum

Trees. Bark whitish or grayish, smooth, maculate, exfoliating. Branchlets terete. Young leaves opposite; leaf blade ovate to orbicular, 7-14 × 6-12 cm. Leaf blade of intermediate leaves broadly lanceolate, 4-5 cm wide. Mature leaves with a 1.5-2.5 cm petiole; leaf blade lanceolate, 10-25 × 2.5-3.5 cm, slightly twisted, both surfaces with small glands, secondary veins at an angle of ca. 45° from midvein, intramarginal veins ca. 0.7 mm from margin. Inflorescences axillary, simple, umbels 7-20-flowered; peduncle 1-2 cm, flattened or ridged. Flower buds long ovate, 10-15 × 4-5 mm. Hypanthium semiglobose, ca. 3 mm; stipe 3-4 mm; calyptra long awl-shaped, 3 to 4 times as long as hypanthium, apex acuminate. Stamens ca. 1 cm; anthers obovoid, dehiscing longitudinally, large glands abaxially. Capsule semiglobose to truncate capitate globose, 4-6 × 5-7 mm; disk broad; valves 3-5, strongly exserted from hypanthium. Fl. Aug-Sep.

Cultivated in Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, and Sichuan [native to SE Australia].