Cryptocarya foveolata explained

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Cryptocarya foveolata, commonly known as small-leaved laurel, small-leaved cryptocarya or mountain walnut, is a species of flowering plant in the family Lauraceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a medium-sized to large tree with elliptic to egg-shaped leaves, cream coloured, perfumed, tube-shaped flowers, and spherical black drupes.

Description

Cryptocarya foveolata is a medium-sized to large tree, typically growing to high with a trunk dbh of, the stem sometimes butressed. The bark is brown, mostly smooth with lines of vertical bumps running up the trunk. The leaves are arranged alternately, elliptic to egg-shaped, long and long on a petiole long. The leaves usually have 3 distinct veins and are green on the upper surface, more or less glaucous on the lower surface and have many small pits on the surfaces. One or two pairs of hollow glands (domatia) are present at the base of the leaf.

The flowers are cream-coloured, perfumed, and arranged in panicles or racemes in leaf axils and are shorter than the leaves. The perianth tube is long and wide and covered with soft hairs. The tepals are long and wide, the outer anthers long and wide, the inner anthers about long and wide. The ovary is long and wide and the style is glabrous. Flowering mainly occurs in November and December, and the fruit is a spherical black drupe, long and wide.

Taxonomy

Cryptocarya foveolata was first formally described in 1924 by Cyril Tenison White and William Douglas Francis in Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland.[1] [2] The specific epithet (foveolata) means 'minutely pitted'.

Distribution and habitat

Cryptocarya foveolata grows in rainforests on fertile soils, mostly or higher above sea level, and is often seen in association with the Antarctic beech. The natural range of distribution is from Mount Royal in the Barrington Tops to the McPherson Range on the border of Queensland and New South Wales.

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Cryptocarya foveolata . Australian Plant Name Index . 9 July 2024.
  2. White . Cyril Tenison . Francis . William D. . Contributions to the Queensland Flora, No. 2. . Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland . 1924 . 35 . 75–76 . 9 July 2024.