Sweet pittosporum
Pittosporum undulatum
Family · Pittosporaceae · Harmless
The Australian tree that replaced laurisilva across much of São Miguel and Madeira. It smells intensely of orange blossom in spring, and that scent is what gives away a lost slope.
Oak woods · Scrubland · Roadsides and waste ground · Streams and ditches
Also known asVictorian box, mock orange
How to tell it
A tree five to fifteen metres, with a dense dark crown. Alternate leaves clustered at the branch ends, leathery and glossy, with a clearly wavy edge, which gives the name. White or cream flowers in posies, intensely orange-blossom scented. Orange capsules that split to show sticky red seeds.
What it is confused with
Japanese pittosporum
Pittosporum tobira
Garden pittosporum is a compact shrub with small leaves whose edge is smooth and rolled; sweet pittosporum is a tall tree with larger wavy-edged leaves. Both smell of orange blossom, and only the latter is a serious island invader.
Open sheet →What it is for
None to encourage. It was planted as a windbreak and for firewood, and escaped. The sticky seeds travel on birds' feet and beaks, and its dense shade stops everything native from regenerating beneath it. In the Azores it is burned as firewood precisely to create an incentive to cut it.
The law says
A listed invasive alien species in Portugal. Do not plant or propagate it.