• A many-stemmed upright deciduous shrub from temperate Himalayan regions, 2-4m, with stems which are smooth, round, hollow and bamboo-like. Fast-growing and vigorous.
• Leaves are large, soft, heart-shaped at the base, with a slender point. New growth is red.
• The white tubular flowers (December to May) grow in long drooping lantern-like spikes, partly concealed by deep reddish-purple bracts, which resemble leaves and are found at the base of the flowers.
• Fruit is round purplish-black fleshy berry, 10 mm (autumn), containing more than 100 small seeds.

Spread mainly by birds, which excrete the seeds, and also by water, machinery, vehicles, the movement of soil, and by dumping.

Introduced by birds deep into fragile and sensitive moist bushland, forms thickets, creates dense shade, displaces native vegetation.

Upper Blue Mountains.

Blueberry Ash (Elaeocarpus reticulatus) to 8m; Lillipillies (Acmena smithii varieties) to 10m; smaller Bottlebrushes (eg Callistemon citrinus 'Endeavour' or 'Western Glory' 3m). Camellias and Rhododendrons also have showy flowers.

Dig out; cut and paint before the berries form; spray dense infestations.