Synonym: Itea spinosa; Cyrilla spinosa.
English: Australian blackthorn; Blackthorn; Christmas bush; Mock orange; Native blackthorn; Native box; Native olive; Prickly box; Prickly pine; Spiny box; Spiny bursaria; Sweet bursaria; Thorn box; Whitethorn.
Region: eastern and southern half of Australia.
Habitat: eucalyptus woodland, disturbed areas, fallow farmland; clay- and shale-based soils, thickets, on rocky hills with shallow soils, on open slopes, shrubs amidst grazing land.
Content: aesculin.
BotanySmall tree or understorey shrub, up to 10 m high.
Stem: bark dark grey, furrowed; sometimes with thorns.
Leaves: alternately, clustered around the nodes; pine-like fragrance when bruised; linear, oval, wedge-shaped, ovate, obovate or cuneate; ± 3 cm long, ± 1 cm wide; rounded apex.
Inflorescences: leafy pyramid-shaped panicles.
Flowers: fragrant, white; flowering in summer.
Pollination: butterflies, moths, Paralucia, native bees; beetles, Curis splendens, Stigmodera inflata, Amphirhoe sloanei, Tropocalymma dimidiatum; scarab beetles; tumbling flower beetles.
Dispersion: by wind.