Evergreen tree or shrub. Leaves leathery, more or less elliptic to oblance­olate, to 20 cm long and 8 cm wide with a blunt tip, shiny above, pale green to almost white with wax below. Flowers pale greenish cream with red sepals; spring. Fruit a shiny black berry.

Available in the nursery trade but rarely grown.

Chile, Argentina

Medicinal; the bark was once used as treatment for scurvy.

Leaves mostly oblanceolate, waxy white below.

VIC: Dandenongs (Alfred Nicholas Memorial Garden about 4 m tall in 1990); 'Pirianda' about 4-5 m tall in 1984); Melbourne (Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, south end of Herb Garden); Parkville (University of Melbourne, Biosciences 4 (formerly Zoology).

Source: Spencer, R. (1997). Winteraceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.

Updated by: Rob Cross, August 2017