Tasmannia stipitata

(Vickery) A. C. Sm.

Northern pepperbush, Dorrigo pepper

Winteraceae Edible: Greens, Seeds 63 iNaturalist observations

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Summary

Tasmannia stipitata, commonly known as northern pepperbush is a flowering plant in the family Winteraceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It has narrowly lance-shaped to narrowly elliptic leaves and male and female flowers on separate plants, the male flowers with 21 to 65 stamens and the female flowers with 2 to 9 carpels. The fruit is bluish-violet and contains 12 to 15 seeds.

Description

A shrub. It grows 1-2.5 m tall. Young branches are purple. The leaves are narrowly sword shaped and 8-13 cm long by 1-2 cm wide. The upper surface is dark green and they are more pale underneath. The flowers usually have 2 petals and they are 8-15 mm long and white. The fruit are oblong berries 4-8 mm long. They are blue to light purple.

Edible Uses

The culinary quality of T. stipitata was recognized in the mid-1980s by horticulturist Peter Hardwick, who gave it the name 'Dorrigo pepper', and Jean-Paul Bruneteau, then chef at Rowntrees Restaurant, Sydney. It is mainly wild harvested from the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales. Dorrigo pepper has a woody-cinnamon and peppery note in the leaves and the fruit/seed. The hot peppery flavor is derived from polygodial, an essential oil component, common to most species in the family.

Distribution

It is a warm temperate plant. It grows in the coastal ranges usually above 1,000 m above sea level in New South Wales. Arboretum Tasmania.

Where It Grows

Australia*, Tasmania,

Synonyms

Drimys stipitata Vickery

References (5)

Bonney, N., 2012, Edible Wild Native Plants for Southern Australia. p 81
Cherikoff V. & Isaacs, J., The Bush Food Handbook. How to gather, grow, process and cook Australian Wild Foods. Ti Tree Press, Australia p 201
Nicholson, N & H., 1994, Australian Rainforest Plants 4, Terania Rainforest Publishing. NSW. p 68
Smith, K & I., 199, Grow your own bushfoods. New Holland. Australia. p 8
Williams, J.B., Harden, G.J., and McDonald, W.J.F., 1984, Trees and shrubs in rainforests of New South Wales and Southern Queensland. Univ. of New England, Armidale. p 52, 77