This lovely Lilly Pilly grows in two disjunct
locations: the rainforests of north-eastern
New South Wales and south-eastern
Queensland, and also in the forests of the
coast and ranges of tropical north
Queensland between Ingham and Cooktown.
In recent years, Riberry (or Small Leaf Lilly Pilly,
or Cherry Satinash) has become a favourite with
Sydney gardeners; its compact size make it
particularly popular for hedging although it is also
often planted as a
feature tree. New
leaves are bright pink,
becoming
crimson,
then purple, finally a
rich, dark, glossy green. It is one of the few
Lilly Pillies resistant to the onslaught of
psyllids, insects that cause ugly pimpling in
the leaves of many other Lilly Pilly species.
Salmon-red succulent fruits have a hint of ‘cloves’ in their taste, to
remind us that Lilly Pillies are closely related to woody fruited eucalypts,
paperbarks and bottlebrushes. All belong to the
plant family
Myrtaceae
.
Alison Downing, Kevin Downing, Brian Atwell
Biological Sciences, November 2015
