Xylomelum Sm.

6 species endemic Aust.; Qld., NSW, WA

Xylomelum pyriforme (Gaertn.) Knight

Small tree or tall shrub. Young shoots and inflorescence rusty villous; young leaves glabrous, reddish and cyanogenetic. Adult leaves lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, glabrous, 10–20 cm long, usually entire on mature trees but sinuate and prickly toothed on younger plants, coriaceous, strongly veined, tapering to a long pointed apex. Flowers in dense opposite nearly sessile spikes 5–8 cm long. Perianth c. 10 mm long; segments white or cream, spreading, revolute. Anthers on short filaments. Hypogynous glands 4. Ovary shortly stipitate. Style filiform; pollen presenter club-shaped, below the stigma. Fruit a woody pear-shaped follicle, 6–9 cm long, attached at the larger end, tardily dehiscent. Seeds 2, collateral, each with a large oblique brown wing. Widespread. DSF. Ss. Fl. spring. Native Pear or Woody Pea