Acronychia acuminata, commonly known as Thornton aspen,[1] is a species of shrub or small rainforest tree that is endemic to north-eastern Queensland. It has simple leaves on stems that are more or cylindrical, flowers in small groups in leaf axils and fleshy, oval to spherical fruit.
Acronychia acuminata is a tree that typically grows to a height of but flowers when only shrub-sized. It has more or less cylindrical stems and simple, glabous, elliptical leaves long and wide on a petiole long. The flowers are arranged in small groups about long in leaf axils, each flower on a pedicel long. The four sepals are about wide, the four petals about long and the eight stamens alternate in length. Flowering occurs in July and the fruit is a fleshy, oval or spherical drupe long.[2] [3]
Acronychia acuminata was first formally described in 1974 by Thomas Gordon Hartley in the Journal of the Arnold Arboretum from specimens collected between the Daintree and Bloomfield Rivers.[4] [5]
Thornton Aspen grows in rainforest between the Bloomfield Range and Daintree Range, at an altitudes of about .
Thornton aspen is classified as "near threatened" under the Queensland Government Nature Conservation Act 1992.