Region: South American; Peru and Ecuador.
Name: in Greek oreos means mountain, kalli means beauty.
Genus: 1 species.
Habitat: mountainous regions; semi-deciduous forests; valleys and evergreen upper montane forest; Andean forests; evergreen sclerophyllous forests; elevations between 1200 and 3800 m; tolerates habitat disturbance
Use: for firewood, furniture, carpentry, inlay work, borders on chess boards; medicinal uses; seeds for food.
BotanyTree or shrub; about 6 metres tall.
Leaves: spiral; simple; entire; highly variable, from narrow and elongate, lanceolate, or lance shaped, to broad and ellipse-shaped, or anything in between; base can be narrow or broad; tip can be pointed or rounded; ± 8 cm long, ± 3 cm wide; covered with dense, reddish hairs when young, smooth with hairs concentrated along the main veins on the lower surface of the leaf when mature.
Inflorescence: terminal or lateral conflorescence; 7 to 17.5, occasionally 38 cm long.
Flowers: white, pink, yellow or red; tepals mostly fused along their length, only the tips of the tepals unfused.
Pollen: three pores.
Pollination: by birds.
TaxonomyFormerly four Australasian species were included in Oreocallis. Recently they are reclassified in the genus Alloxylon.
Together with Telopea, Alloxylon and Embothrium, Oreocallis makes up the small group Embothriinae of terminal often red-flowering showy plants scattered around the southern edges of the Pacific Rim.