Macro syringa berrytree flower

Native to this country and South East Asia. Here, the natural range is from Cooktown in north Queensland down through to the south coast of New South Wales. A deciduous shade tree with a rounded crown, usually reaching 12 m (but some as high as 30 m have been recorded). Width 8 m.

Flowers are very small at 10 mm diameter with five pale purple/white petals and growing in great swathes of clusters. One can often smell this tree before seeing it, the perfume is heady and (I think) really lovely. Fruits are small, round 15 mm diameter and poisonous to humans and some other mammals but birds are able to eat the fruits. (Some reports suggest that ingesting as few as 6–8 fruits can be fatal to humans).