Trees or densely branched, compact shrubs to 6 m or so tall with spreading, rounded canopies. Leaves either alternate or whorled at branch ends, lanceolate to oblanceolate or elliptic, mostly 8-12 cm long, 2.5-3.5 cm wide, leathery, hairless on both surfaces, smelling faintly of lemon when crushed, edges wavy. Leaf stalk slender, 1-2 cm long. Flowers star-shaped, numerous, cream, in flat, branched clusters at ends of branches, fragrant. Petals cream, spreading from the base and not cohering into a floral tube, petal margins recurving longitudinally; Sept-Dec. Fruit numerous, globose,with 2(3) valves, in bunches of capsules each about 7-8 mm long, 5 mm wide; seeds few, inserted in the middle of the chamber.

Known mostly through its variegated cultivar used as a screen or hedge plant.

New Zealand.

VIC: Dandenongs (Alfred Nicholas Memorial Gds); Emerald Lake (approach road); Springvale Crematorium.

Source: Cayzer, L. (2002). Pittosporaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 3. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 2. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.