Pink-flowered doughwood — Melicope elleryana

Melicope elleryana

Food for native birds Host plant for butterflies and insects Shelter for wildlife Resilient garden plant

$7.00

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Plant profile

At a glance

The essentials for finding the right garden position.

Mature size: Height: 6–15 m · Width: 4–8 m
Light: Part shade, Shade
Water: Moist, Seasonally wet
Soil: Loamy, Clay
Drainage: Poorly drained
Vegetation type: Wetlands / Swamps / Creek Margins, Wet Eucalypt, Rainforest
Plant lifespan: Long-lived perennial
Plant form: Trees

Plant ratings

A quick guide to this plant’s value for wildlife and the garden.

Bird food value
Host plant value
Pollinator value
Shelter & habitat value
Flower display
Garden resilience

About this plant

Pink-flowered doughwood brings the scale and character of the local landscape into a larger garden setting. Showy pink flower clusters are produced on older wood and followed by capsules containing glossy black seeds. Use it where its canopy can become part of a layered garden and provide a lasting sense of place.

Image credits:
Mature image: tallarook via iNaturalist — CC0 1.0
Feature image: Poyt448 Peter Woodard via Wikimedia Commons — Public domain

More plant details

Garden uses: Habitat tree, shade or canopy planting, restoration-style garden and layered wildlife corridor; especially suited to sites reflecting Wetlands / Swamps / Creek Margins, Wet Eucalypt, Rainforest.
Wildlife value: Melicope elleryana has some pollinator value, but its flowers are less abundant, less accessible or not a major garden food resource. Melicope elleryana produces substantial fleshy fruit and/or forms a major foraging plant for fruit-eating birds. Melicope elleryana provides useful tree structure for cover, perching and movement through a layered garden. A recorded food plant for Ulysses Swallowtail caterpillars (Papilio ulysses), which eat the new foliage. This relationship is documented in tropical Queensland and does not imply that Ulysses butterflies will breed in Gold Coast gardens.
Flowering and fruiting: Showy pink flower clusters are produced on older wood and followed by capsules containing glossy black seeds.
Growth habit: Woody tree contributing canopy or mid-storey structure; indicative mature size 6–15 m × 4–8 m.
Cautions: A rainforest tree that needs shelter while young and can become large in favourable sites.