Elaeocarpus stellaris explained

Elaeocarpus stellaris is a species of flowering plant in the family Elaeocarpaceae and is endemic to north-eastern Queensland. It is a tree, sometimes with buttress roots at the base of the trunk, elliptic to egg-shaped leaves, small groups of flowers with greenish-yellow sepals and creamy-white petals, the fruit containing a five-flanged stone.

Description

Elaeocarpus stellaris is a tree that typically grows to a height of with a dbh of but sometimes up to and sometimes with buttress roots at the base of the trunk. The leaves are elliptic to egg-shaped, long and wide on a petiole long. The flowers are borne in groups of two to five on a robust rachis up to long, each flower on a ridged pedicel long. The sepals are greenish-yellow, long and wide and velvelty-hairy on the back. The petals are creamy-white, about long and wide, with three broad, blunt lobes on the end. There are about fifty stamens. Flowering occurs in December and the fruit is an elliptical drupe about long and wide containing a stone with five longitudinal flanges. This species is similar to E. bancroftii apart from the flanged stone.[1] [2]

Taxonomy

Elaeocarpus stellaris was first formally described in 1969 by Lindsay Stuart Smith in Contributions from the Queensland Herbarium from material he collected Gregory Falls west of Innisfail.[3] [4]

Distribution and habitat

This quandong grows in well-developed rainforest at altitudes between in north-eastern Queensland.[2]

Conservation status

This quandong is listed as of "least concern" under the Queensland Government Nature Conservation Act 1992.[5]

Notes and References

  1. Hyland . Bernard . Coode . Mark J. . Elaeocarpus in Australia and New Zealand. . Kew Bulletin . 1984 . 39 . 3 . 542–544.
  2. Web site: Elaeocarpus stellaris . F.A.Zich . B.P.M.Hyland . T.Whiffen . R.A.Kerrigan . Bernard Hyland . 2020 . Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants Edition 8 (RFK8) . . 30 June 2021.
  3. Web site: Elaeocarpus stellaris. APNI. 25 February 2021.
  4. Smith . Lindsay S. . New species of and notes on Queensland plants, V . Contributions from the Queensland Herbarium . 1969 . 6 . 6 . 3–4 . 41781953 . 25 February 2021.
  5. Web site: Species profile —Elaeocarpus stellaris . Queensland Government Department of Environment and Science . 25 February 2021.