Type material collected by Robert Brown on Mt Wellington, Tasmania.

Type material collected by Robert Brown on Mt Wellington, Tasmania. Evergreen shrubs. Sexes mostly on separate plants. Leaves aromatic when crushed. Flowers terminal at first, white or yellow. Sepals splitting into 2-3 lobes. Petals 0-many. Carpels 1-few, free. Fruit a cluster of berries.

Closely related to Drimys with which this genus is sometimes united. Genetic, chemical, anatomical and pollen factors are used chiefly in their separation although Drimys has bisexual flowers and short stigmas; Tasmannia is unisexual with sterile carpels on the male flowers and long stigmas on the female flowers.

About 40 species from Australia and Malesia (8 species in Australia).

Vink (1970), Sampson et al. (1988).

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.