Category: Nature

Rainforest Tree of the Month (June 2018): White Hazelwood

WHITE HAZELWOOD     Simplocos chinchinensis

 When in bloom, usually any time from April through June, the White Hazelwood tree (Simplocos chinchinensis,) is eye-catching crowned with a dense display of fluffy, white flower panicles.  The flowers have a delicate fragrance and attract insects and birds. One of these trees is at present (early June) in full bloom and may be seen at the southern gate of the High Ropes course.  There are several of these trees scattered around the village and along the sides of the Ridge Road near Paluma. Not all are yet in bloom.

Symplocos is one genus with approximately 250 species around the world and in Australia, there are 15 to 20. Wendy Cooper, in “Fruits of the Australian Tropical Rainforest’ lists 17 species which occur in tropical Queensland.  The tree can grow to about 30 meters high.


The tree is not easily identifiable by its trunk and lower branches which have lightly textured bark.  Like so many rainforest trees, the bark is mottled with lichen, camouflaging the surface with splotches of white, tan and green.  The leaves however are distinctive. Mature leaves are elliptic in shape, are leathery and a dark, almost black, green and can be 70 -200 mm long and 7 -25 mm wide.  Veins are well defined, giving the leaf an almost quilted appearance and the underside has a prominent purple mid-rib.

The flowers are tiny, with 5 white petals and many long filamentous stamens which when clustered in panicles, give a soft fluffy appearance. Unfortunately their beauty can be appreciated for only a few weeks – usually rain and wind dash them from the tree to form a carpet of white on the ground below.

The fruits of White Hazelwood are small, fleshy, olive-shaped blue/black drupes, 6 -10 mm long containing one or two seeds within a woody endocarp.  The fruit ripens between November and March and is eaten by many bird species.

Keep an eye open over the next month or two for these lovely trees.

  Text and Photos by Colwyn Campbell

Rainforest Tree of the Month (May 2018): Python Tree

SCRUB IRONWOOD  Gossia bidwillii

 The Scrub Ironwood is a member of the Myrtaceae family; Genus – Gossia, Species – bidwillii.

 Schoolchildren often call this tree the Refrigerator Tree because its trunk, when compared with other surrounding trees, is very cold to touch.  It is also known as the Python Tree, perhaps because its mottled green and tan colouring and slightly twisting trunk resemble the marking and sinuous form of a large python.

The Scrub Ironwood is an attractive, slender tree growing to a height of about 25 metres.  Its bark is smooth with blotchy patterning in green, tan, brown and orange colours but its most distinguishing feature is its coldness to the touch when compared with surrounding trees.  On a cold morning the dense wood remains cold and water will condense and run off the trunk while surrounding trees remain dry.  Sometimes a tree will form buttress roots.  Branchlets on this tree are smooth and brown. The opposite, simple leaves are about 80 to 105 mm in length and elliptical or ovate in shape.  When crushed they have a slightly eucalyptus smell.

Flowering occurs between August and March: small 2 to 5 mm sweetly scented white flowers with 4 but mostly 5 petals.  They are often high in the tree and difficult to see. The fruit usually appears between October and May.  It is a purple/black berry, about 4 to 10 mm in size, containing cream to brown coloured seeds.  Many birds, including the lovely Rose-crowned Fruit Doves, feast on the fruit of this tree.

There are several Scrub Ironwood trees to be seen along the Paluma Rainforest Track – some of them quite close to the entrance of the track.  See if you can spot them, growing among trees similar in appearance.  The smooth, cold bark is the distinctive feature.

Text and Photo by Colwyn Campbell