Tasmannia xerophila, commonly known as alpine pepperbush, is a species of flowering plant in the family Winteraceae and is endemic to south-eastern continental Australia. It is a bushy shrub to small tree with lance-shaped leaves, the narrower end towards the base. Male and female flowers are borne on separate plants, the male flowers with 9 to 30 stamens and the female flowers with up to 8 carpels. The fruit is glossy black and contains 2 to 7 seeds.

Description

Tasmannia xerophila is a bushy shrub to small tree that typically grows to a height of 0.6–4 m and usually forms clumps, the branchlets reddish-brown. The leaves are leathery, lance-shaped to narrowly so, with the narrower end towards the base, mostly 30–140 mm long and 5–30 mm wide on a petiole 2–6 mm long. Male and female flowers are borne on separate plants, male flowers on a pedicel 7–23 mm long with 9 to 30 stamens. Female flowers are borne on a pedicel 5–16 mm long and usually have 2 petals 5–7 mm long and 1–2 mm wide, and up to 8 carpels with 2 to 9 ovules. Flowering occurs from December to February and the fruit is glossy black to glaucous, 6.5–11 mm long, containing 2 to 7 seeds 2.5–3.5 mm long and 2.0–2.5 mm wide.

Taxonomy

This species was first formally described by Paul Évariste Parmentier, who gave it the name Drimys xerophila in Bulletin Scientifique de la France et de la Belgique, but the name was illegitimate. In 1976, Max Gray transferred the species to Tasmannia and legitimised the name T. zerophila in Contributions from the Herbarium Australiense. In 1994, Ruth E. Raleigh and others described subspecies robusta, and the name, and that of the autonym are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:

Distribution and habitat

Subspecies robusta grows in tall, open forest on Mount Ellery and Goonmirk Rocks in East Gippsland, Victoria. Subspecies xerophila has a wider distribution in open forest, woodland or subalpine grassland from the central highland of southern New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory to the eastern parts of the Great Dividing Range in Victoria, where it often grows in snow gum woodland.