Ardisia crenata.
Australian holly or Coral berry is native to southern and eastern Asia.
It is naturalised in the coastal areas of S.E. Queensland and up the coast.
An invasive species it is an environmental weed in Queensland.
Plants produce a very large amount of fruit and grow in low light conditions out competing other vegetation.
The perennial plants are commonly seen around 1 m high but can reach 4 m.
They often have multiple stems making them a shrub.
Stems, branching near the top hold dense clusters of leaves.
The bases of the side branches are swollen.
The lower pale grey trunks have prominent scars.
Young thin green branchlets, petioles, leaves, inflorescence stems, flowers and fruit usually have prominent dark raised spots or flat streaks.
The alternate leaves are on a petiole up to 1 cm long.
The elliptic to lanceolate or oblanceolate blades are up to 20 cm long and 5 cm wide.
The tip is rounded or pointed, and the base wedge-shaped.
The edges typically have small blunt lobes (crenate) and may be wavy.
The upper surface is a shiny dark green and the lower surface is paler.
A marginal vein connects the ends of the side veins.
The petiole and both blade surfaces have brownish to black lines, spots or small nodules.
Clustered at and near the ends of the trunks are side branches up to around 15 cm long that have a swollen base.
At and near the ends of these side branches are several shorter branches.
Each of these branches (peduncles) has a small deciduous bract (leaf) at the base.
Each peduncle, 2 to 3 cm long holds an umbel of flowers on pedicels up to 1 cm long.
In an umbel all the pedicels arise at or near the end of the peduncle.
Flowers have 5 small sepals around 2 mm long.
The bases are fused for around 0.5 mm and the tip is rounded.
The reddish sepals have a lot of tiny black dots.
The corolla, around 5 or 6 mm across has 5 petals with their bases fused.
The white to pale pink ovate to lance-shaped lobes have a pointed tip.
There are 5 stamens on short filaments with anthers that lie close together over the ovary and around the style.
The anthers open inwards through longitudinal slits.
Their outer surface is dotted with black glands.
The superior ovary has 1 locule with ovules in rows down the central placenta.
The fruit are shiny, bright red drupes that may have tiny black dots on them.
Each drupe, up to 8 mm across has one seed.
Fruit, hanging down below the leaves stay on the plant for months.
J.F.
