Anise myrtle
Also known as aniseed myrtle, ringwood, Syzygium anisatum, Backhousia anisata
Quick answer
The leaf of an Australian rainforest tree that tastes strongly of aniseed, because its oil is mostly anethole — the molecule of aniseed, fennel and star anise. Used dried and ground in baking, desserts and sauces.
- Tastes of
- aniseed, liquorice, sweet, green, fresh
- Heat
- Scoville does not apply
- Goes with
- Macadamia
- If you have none
- Aniseed — see the limits
Flavour and aroma
Aniseed, with some sweetness and a slight cooling on the palate. That is how a trained panel of ten in Queensland described a commercial sample of dried, chopped leaf, received in 2009 and tasted in a semolina base; the same panel gave its smell as aniseed, menthol and herbal, and aniseed was a word it used for no other native ingredient it assessed.
One commercial sample from one supplier. The panel did not record bitterness.
Strong, sweet aniseed and liquorice, with a fresh, green, faintly eucalyptus edge.
Green dried leaf or green-brown powder.
Used as a fine powder or crumbled leaf.
Heat
Pungency scale: none — this spice is not pungent
No heat.
- Anethole — Between about seventy and ninety-four per cent of the leaf oil in the commonly grown anethole type, and the whole of the aniseed character.(what anethole is)
- Estragole — Methyl chavicol, a minor component in the anethole type and the major one in a second, less common chemical type of the tree.(what estragole is)
Pairings
Ranked by how well established the combination is, with the reason and the caveats attached.
Foods
Macadamia
StrongAnise myrtle is used to flavour macadamia nuts in the Australian native-food trade — two native ingredients, the rich nut carrying the aniseed well.
Other spices and blends
Lemon myrtle
StrongSold side by side and combined in native-spice blends and baking; the citral of lemon myrtle and the anethole of anise myrtle are a lemon-and-aniseed pairing familiar from European baking.
If you have no anise myrtle
What to use instead, and — more usefully — where each replacement stops working.
Aniseed
Good matchUse: ~1× by volume — Ground aniseed for ground leaf, tasting as you go; both are strong.
The same molecule, anethole, dominates both, so the aniseed character carries. Anise myrtle has a greener, fresher edge that the seed lacks.
| Flavour | Aroma | Colour | Heat |
|---|---|---|---|
| close | close | different | n/a |
Works for
- Baking and desserts
Does not work for
- Dishes presented as Australian native food
Preparation and use
Use by the pinch: a quarter teaspoon of ground leaf flavours a batch of biscuits. Infuse the whole leaf in warm milk or syrup and strain.
A modern Australian flavouring used in shortbread, milk-based dishes, pasta and with macadamia nuts, and by the food and drink industry.
- baking — Ground leaf baked into shortbread and biscuits, where the aniseed holds.
- infusing — Steeped in milk, cream or syrup for desserts, then strained.
Storage and freshness
| Form | Good for | Conditions | Fridge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ground | Not established | Cool, dark, dry and sealed. | No |
It should smell strongly of aniseed as soon as the jar is opened.
- A weak or dusty smell
- Loss of anethole and the lighter volatiles once ground
Quality is not the same as safety
Faded anise myrtle is a quality matter only.
Forms
These forms differ enough to need separate answers: treating them as interchangeable produces a dish that is wrong.
Ground leaf
The usual form, for baking and sprinkling.
Dried leaf
Whole or crumbled leaf, for infusing.
Botany
Formerly Backhousia anisata, under which it appears in older writing.
Myrtaceae
The myrtle family, with lemon myrtle, cloves and allspice.
The leaves, fresh or dried and ground.
Commonly confused with
The better-known Australian myrtle leaf, sold beside it and used the same way — lemon myrtle for citral, anise myrtle for anethole. They are different plants in different genera.
The same dominant molecule, anethole, from an unrelated plant. Anise myrtle is a leaf used by the pinch and carries a greener, slightly eucalyptus edge.
How it is grown
The plant, how it is propagated and farmed, what threatens the crop, and where it is produced now. Crop diseases here are plant health, not food safety.
The leaves of a dense rainforest tree, which hold 1.3–2.0 per cent oil by fresh weight. Trees come in two chemical forms: an anethole form, whose oil is about 95 per cent anethole and is the one wanted for an aniseed flavour, and a less frequent form dominated by methyl chavicol.
Wild only in rainforest at a few places in the Bellingen and Nambucca valleys of northern New South Wales, where it can reach 50 m. The leaf of commerce comes from trees grown mainly in mixed-species plantations on the east coast of Australia; how those plantations are propagated and cut has not been described in a source read here.
In its natural state the tree is regarded as rare and endangered, its wild range being a few valley rainforests; that describes the wild populations, not the plantations. Unusually for its genus its fruits are dry and its seeds can be dried and banked, and seed is held at the Australian PlantBank, though ageing tests suggest it is short-lived in cold storage; living collections raised from cuttings are kept in tissue culture as well.
Where it comes from and how it is made
The subtropical rainforests of north-eastern New South Wales, where it is a rare tree in the wild.
- Australia (Northern New South Wales and south-east Queensland) — origin. Grown in plantations for the native food industry.
Grown in plantations for leaf, which supplies the flavouring and native-food trade.
Subtropical rainforest.
Buying and quality
Ground is the practical form; buy it in small quantities because it fades.
- From a native-food supplier, in a small sealed pack.
- A strong aniseed smell on opening.
History and trade
A plant with a history of Indigenous use that entered commercial cultivation with the Australian native food industry and is now used as a flavouring by the food and drink trade.
Culture
Recorded by tradition rather than merged into one narrative — these are genuinely different practices.
Modern Australian cooking
Used in shortbread, milk-based desserts, ice cream, sauces for fish and in blends of native spices — a modern, commercial use, distinct from and far younger than the Aboriginal knowledge of the plant, which is not represented here.
- In shortbread
- In milk desserts
- With seafood
What we do not know
Published openly. A gap we have named is more useful than a gap we have filled with plausible prose.
Not yet established for anise myrtle:
- Propagation
- Archaeological evidence
- Historical timeline
- Traditional medicinal context
- Regulatory limits
- Traditional uses