The name tree violet, like the name grass-tree, helps little with identification - it is not a tree, and it does not resemble a violet.
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There are two local species.
Today's photo shows the fruits of the smaller, bushier tree violet, a rounded prickly shrub to around 1.5 metres tall. These are mature fruits, resembling tiny ripe plums. They are said to be edible, and are certainly eaten by birds. Sometimes they are paler than those pictured.
For a long time, the tree violets of the Ballarat district were regarded as one variable species.
Both species have strikingly perfumed small yellow bell-shaped flowers in spring.
The bushy species grows in open basalt sites, where it is often found as a remnant plant sheltering from stock grazing along fencelines.
It is found mostly on private property and roadsides, at such places as Clunes, Ullina, Burrumbeet, Campbelltown and other rocky basalt country.
The second local species is taller, lankier and leafier, without the very stiff, intertwined branches. Its berries tend to be greenish-grey. It is often found along creeks. Occasionally the two species grow together.
The bushier, stiffer species is known to botanists as Melicytus angustifolius, while the taller one is Melicytus dentatus.
