I have no idea as to what this plant is. It's an evergreen shrub and was in flower in mid-spring. Our winter minimum is around -6C and it appears to survive that quite happily. If I hadn't seen it in flower I might have assumed from the foliage that it was a species Camellia, but clearly it's nothing like that. Thanks for your help.
This is Aphanopetalum resinosum, a woody climber native to eastern Australia, growing in rainforest and moister coastal eucalypt forests. Aphanopetalum was generally included in familky Cunoniaceae but molecular study has shown that it is quite unrelated to Cunoniaceae and requires a family all of its own, Aphanopetalaceae. There are only 2 species in the genus, the second a long way distant on the western coast of Western Australia.
Hi Tony, I didn't expect to find you here. That ID certainly looks to be right. Thanks. They were just a few shots that were in my "must ID these one day" file. If only I could remember where I took the photos, I'd get some more. Cheers, Geoff Bryant
Hello Geoff, and glad to be of help. I saw you have a few more and will be interested to have a look at them. And while we're at it, do you have any thoughts about my mystery plant in Flickr? - http://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_rodd/5338907572/
Sorry, Tony. I've had a look at that shot on Flickr and although it looks strangely familiar I can't come up with anything. It looks to be forming a thicket, so presumably there's a rhizome or some kind of suckering root. I initially liked the idea that it may be a Rhus, but I couldn't find anything in Rhus or Toxicodendron that looked like it. I think what it reminds me of is Prosopis glandulosa, but that's obviously just a similarity.
