Cryptocarya cercophylla is a species of flowering plant in the laurel family and is endemic to Wooroonooran National Park in north Queensland. It is a poorly-formed tree with egg-shaped to elliptic leaves, the flowers creamy-green or cream-coloured and tube-shaped, and the fruit an elliptic, red to shiny black drupe.
Cryptocarya cercophylla is a small, poorly-formed tree that typically grows to a height of, sometimes with coppice shoots at the base, its stems not buttressed. Its leaves are egg-shaped to elliptic, long and wide on a petiole long. The flowers are usually arranged in racemes of 4 to 7, long and are not fragrant. The tepals are creamy-green or cream-coloured, the outer tepals long and wide, the inner tepals long and wide. Flowering has been observed in July and from October to December, and the fruit is a red to shiny black, elliptic or egg-shaped drupe long and wide.[1] [2]
Cryptocarya cercophylla was first formally described in 2013 by Wendy Elizabeth Cooper in the journal Austrobaileya from specimens collected near Mount Bartle Frere.[3] The specific epithet (cercophylla) means 'tail-leaf', referring to the tail-like tip of the leaf.
This species of Cryptocarya grows as an understorey tree in high rainfall rainforest in Wooroonooran National Park in the Wet Tropics bioregion or north-eastern Queensland.