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Cherry Ballart

Shrub or small pyramidal tree, yellowish green or bronzy. Commonly 8 - 10 m high.

Numerous branchlets are hairy and flaky at first then become smooth and straight.The swollen orange to red stalk preceding the small hard fruit is often mistaken as the fruit itself.

Leaves

Scale-like, triangular, 0.5 mm long and 2 – 3 mm long on new growth.

Flowers

Yellow-green flowers in short, dense, clusters that are usually 6 mm long. Flowers appear in early spring to autumn (September to May).

Fruits/Seeds

Globular, small, hard, greenish inedible nut at the end of a swollen orange to red stalk.

Field Guide

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  • Species Category: Plants
  • Species origin: Native
  • Conservation status: Common
  • Did You Know?
    • Known as a hemiparasite (semi-parasite) it needs other plants, particularly Eucalypts and to a lesser extent Acacias, in its earlier stages of life, due to it parasitising the roots of these plants and obtaining nutrients and water from them

  • What to Observe

    • First fully open single flower

    • Full flowering (record all days)

    • End of flowering (when 95% of the flowers have faded)

    • No flowering

    • Fruits/Seeds (records all days)

  • When and Where

    When To Look

    • Flowers mainly throughout spring to autumn (September to May)
    • Fruits in summer

    Where To Look

    • All states except Northern Territory
    • Widespread in lowland or foothill open-forests and woodlands in higher rainfall areas

  • What Else?

    Similar Species

    Pale-Fruit Ballarat (Exocarpos strictus) is much small at 3.5 m high and light green, bronzy, blue-green or greyish in colour. Flowers in short cluster of 2 – 6. Fruits oval, 2 – 7 mm long, red, white or mauve, succulent. Found in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia.
  • Trails: Anakie Gorge VIC, Bellarine Peninsula - Barwon Coast & Ocean Grove Nature Reserve VIC, Bendigo Kennington Reservoir VIC, Cumberland Land Conservancy Marsdenia NSW, Cumberland Land Conservancy Thornbill NSW, Cumberland Land Conservancy Wallaroo NSW, Cumberland Land Conservancy Wombat NSW, Gresswell Forest VIC, Morwell NP VIC, Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne VIC, Sunshine Coast Currimundi QLD, Taroona High School TAS
  • Species Region: Australia