Orites excelsus, commonly known as prickly ash, mountain silky oak or white beefwood,[2] is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia.

Orites excelsus is a tree that typically grows to a height of up to 30 m (98 ft) with more or less smooth brown or grey bark, often with minute scales, and new shoots are covered with rust-coloured hairs at first.

[2][3] Orites excelsus was first formally described in 1830 by Robert Brown in Supplementum primum Prodromi florae Novae Hollandiae from specimens collected by Charles Fraser near the Hastings River in 1818.

[4][5] Frederick Manson Bailey described Orites fragrans from Mounts Bellenden Ker and Bartle Frere, now accepted as an isonym of O.

[7] Orites excelsus is found in cool mountain rainforests from Barrington Tops in New South Wales and north to south-eastern Queensland.