Sambar Browse Plants - The Pittosporums

P. undulatum (also known as sweet pittosporum, native daphne, cheesewood and mock orange) and P. bicolor (also known as banyalla) are relatively common native tree species in Victoria’s sambar country south of the Great Dividing Range and are worth keeping an eye out for. Around 200 other members of this genus occur in Australia, New Zealand, eastern Asia, Africa and on some Pacific islands.

Sweet pittosporum grows to around 15 metres tall and has wavy or ‘undulating’ leaf edges, hence its scientific name. Leaves are three to four centimetres wide by 10 to 12 long, dark green and shiny on top and pale green and dull below. This tree prefers fertile soils. Because it is killed by wildfire it tends to be found in moist areas and in damp gullies in lowland forest areas that are protected from fire, particularly in ‘jungle’ gullies in East Gippsland. It is also a common garden and street tree because of its relatively small size and dense green foliage, attractive and heavily scented flowers and distinctive fruits. It has unfortunately become an invasive weed in many areas, such as in the suburbs of Melbourne, where it is now obviously protected from fire and where the seed is presumably spread by birds.

Like the wild cherry, sweet pittosporum is heavily used by deer and if there is a sambar population present trees will usually feature a browse line at around 1.5 metres, trunks will often be rubbed and the bare soil under them will frequently show evidence of bedding animals as the usually dense foliage provides excellent cover from a hot sun, frost, rain and searching hunters.

Banyalla is a smaller tree than sweet pittosporum and has a narrower leaf that is perhaps two centimetres wide and six long, shiny dark green on top and whitish and hairy underneath with under-curled edges. Banyalla can probably be thought of as an ‘alpine’ version of sweet pittosporum with a shared liking for fertile, damp gullies where it is protected from fire and where its tolerance of frosts and snow allows it to flourish. It occurs south of the Dividing Range from perhaps 700 to 1,500 metres elevation. It seems not to have been commonly used as a garden or street tree although it is sometimes seen for sale in nurseries.

Banyalla has often been referred to as a ‘chocolate species’ so far as sambar browsing is concerned but rather than reflecting a highly preferred sambar feed source it probably indicates that feed and shelter are at a premium in alpine areas over the winter months and a stand of banyalla provides both. Banyalla invariably shows a browse line if sambar are present, and often there is also evidence of branches being pulled down and broken by feeding deer.

Both sweet pittosporum and banyalla produce bell-shaped flowers in the spring. Those of the former are white or cream while those of the latter are cream with mauve or brown. The flowers are followed in summer by very characteristic round seed capsules about one centimetre in diameter. As these capsules mature they change from green to bright orange, splitting open when ripe to reveal a mass of sticky red seeds that unlike those of many other native plants don’t need fire to germinate.