| Tasmannia stipitata | |
|---|---|
 | |
| InWerrikimbe National Park | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Magnoliids |
| Order: | Canellales |
| Family: | Winteraceae |
| Genus: | Tasmannia |
| Species: | T. stipitata |
| Binomial name | |
| Tasmannia stipitata | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
Tasmannia stipitata, commonly known asnorthern pepperbush[2] is a flowering plant in thefamilyWinteraceae and isendemic 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 65stamens and the female flowers with 2 to 9carpels. The fruit is bluish-violet and contains 12 to 15 seeds.
Tasmannia stipitata is a shrub that typically grows to a height of 1–3 m (3 ft 3 in – 9 ft 10 in) and has smooth, dull purplish branchlets. Its leaves are lance-shaped to narrowly elliptic, 50–130 mm (2.0–5.1 in) long and 7–20 mm (0.28–0.79 in) wide, sometimes on apetiole up to 2 mm (0.079 in) long. Male and female flowers are borne on separate plants and usually have 2, sometimes up to 6 egg-shaped petals 5–15 mm (0.20–0.59 in) long. Male flowers are borne on apedicel 12–20 mm (0.47–0.79 in) long and have 21 to 65 stamens, and female flowers are on a pedicel 17–30 mm (0.67–1.18 in) long with 2 to 9 carpels with 13 to 22ovules. Flowering occurs from September to November and the fruit is an oblong to oval, bluish-violet berry 5–7 mm (0.20–0.28 in) long with 12 to 15 strongly curved seeds 2.3–2.6 mm (0.091–0.102 in) long.[2][3][4]
'This species was first formally described in 1937 byJoyce Winifred Vickery who gave it the nameDrimys stipitata in theProceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales from a specimen collected byJoseph Maiden.[4][5] In 1969,Albert Charles Smith transferred the species toTasmannia asT. stipitata in the journalTaxon.[6]
Tasmannia stipitata grows in moist forest and rainforest betweenGirraween National Park in south-eastern Queensland toBarrington Tops in northern New South Wales, usually at altitudes above 1,000 m (3,300 ft).[2][3]
The culinary quality ofT. stipitata was recognized in the mid-1980s by horticulturistPeter Hardwick, who gave it the name 'Dorrigo pepper', andJean-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 frompolygodial,[7] anessential oil component, common to most species in the family.
