Cupaniopsis shirleyana, commonly known as wedge-leaved tuckeroo,[1] is a species of flowering plant in the soapberry family and is endemic to Queensland. It is a small tree with paripinnate leaves, usually with 6 to 14 wedge-shaped leaflets with serrated edges, and separate male and female flowers arranged in spikes, the fruit a more or less spherical orange capsule containing a seed with an orange-red aril.
Cupaniopsis shirleyana is a small tree that typically grows to a height of, its young parts covered with soft hairs. The leaves are long and paripinnate with 6 to 14 wedge-shaped leaflets long, wide with a serrated edges, on a petiole long. The lowermost leaflets are stipule-like. The flowers are borne in spikes long, and are sessile or on a pedicel up to long. The sepal lobes are long and covered with soft hairs, the petals egg-shaped, long and wide, and hairy on the outside. The fruit is a sessile, more or less spherical drupe long and wide, covered with velvety hairs, and the fruit contains a seed with an orange-red aril.[2]
This species was first formally described in 1888 by Frederick Manson Bailey, who gave it the name Cupania shirleyana in a supplement to A Synopsis of the Queensland Flora from specimens collected near Sankey's Scrub near Brisbane.[3] [4] In 1924, Ludwig Radlkofer transferred the species to Cupaniopsis as C. shirleyana.[5] The specific epithet (shirleyana) honours John Francis Shirley for his "interest in the Field Naturalist Section of the Royal Society of Queensland".[4]
Wedge-leaved tuckeroo grows in dry rainforest in scrubby slopes, scree slopes and rocky streams at altitudes between above sea level from near Brisbane to Curtis Island in south-eastern Queensland.[6]
Cupaniopsis sirleyana is listed as a "vulnerable" under the Australian Government Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and the Queensland Government Nature Conservation Act 1992.[7]