Homalanthus stillingifolius

Homalanthus stillingifolius syn Omalanthus stillingifolius

This shrub is native to dry rainforest and open woodland of the east coast and forms a dense rounded shrub to about 3 metres. It suckers at the base sending up many closely crowded stems but does not cover a great distance and at the most, a 1.5 metres spread is produced after a couple of years. The shrub is noted for its burgundy coloured leaves and red stems and like other members of the Euphorbia family, flowers are insignificant and not notable.This specimen was photographed in an garden of mainly exotic plants and it is maintained like many shrubs these days by a quick once over with powered hedge trimmer to keep it at a desirable height.
It certainly deserves to be better known as an easy care shrub for ornamental and screening purposes. Like many native plants however it fails to look particularly interesting in a pot and may only come into its own after a couple of years in the ground.