Mountain Pepper

Photographer - Ross Field

Tasmannia lanceolata

Mountain Pepper is an attractive shrub growing to 4 m in height.

The young stems are strikingly red and the mature pepper-corn sized fruits are black when ripe.

The dried fruits have been used as a condiment.

The leaves are food for caterpillars of the Macleay's Swallowtail butterfly, the only resident swallowtail butterfly in the cool temperate forests of south-eastern Australia.