Elaeocarpus foveolatus, commonly known as white quandong or northern quandong, is a species of flowering plant in the family Elaeocarpaceae and is endemic to Queensland. It is a medium-sized tree, sometimes with buttress roots at the base of the trunk, variably-shaped leaves with serrated edges, flowers with five petals often with a few short lobes or teeth on the tip, and elliptic to oval fruit.
Elaeocarpus foveolatus is a tree that typically grows to a height of 33m (108feet), sometimes with buttress roots at the base of the trunk. The leaves are variable in shape, often egg-shaped with the lower end towards the base, long and wide on a hairy petiole long. The leaves often develop domatia and have wavy-toothed edges. The flowers are borne in groups of four to twelve on a rachis long, each flower on a pedicel long. The flowers have five elliptic sepals about long and wide. The five petals are elliptic to oblong, long and about wide, often with between three and five short lobes on the tip. There are more than fifty stamens and the ovary is hairy. Flowering occurs from December to January and the fruit is an elliptic to oval drupe up to long and wide, present from June to October.[1] [2]
Elaeocarpus foveolatus was first formally described in 1866 by Ferdinand von Mueller in Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae from material collected by John Dallachy in mountains near Rockingham Bay.[3] The specific epithet (foveolatus) means "minutely pitted".[4]
Elaeocarpus foveolatus is endemic to Queensland, and is widespread in the north and central-eastern areas of that state where it grows in rainforest at altitudes of up to 1200m (3,900feet).[2]
White quandong is listed as of "least concern" under the Queensland Government Nature Conservation Act 1992.[5]