Wilkiea hugeliana, commonly known as veiny wilkiea, common wilkiea or tetra beech,[1] is a species of flowering plant in the family Monimiaceae, and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a tall shrub or small tree with egg-shaped, oblong to narrowly elliptic leaves, and male and female flowers on separate plants. Male flowers have 3 or 4 stamens and female flowers have 20 to 40 carpels, and the fruit is a blackish oval drupe with a yellow to orange receptacle.
Wilkiea hugeliana is a tall shrub or small tree, typically high with a dbh of up to . Its leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, egg-shaped, oblong to narrowly elliptic, long and wide on a petiole long. The leaves are leathery, have a prominent midvein and toothed edges.
Male and female flowers are borne on separate plants, male flowers in leaf axils in groups of 7 to 9, long, each flower spherical, in diameter on a pedicel long with 6 tepals and 3 or 4 stamens. Female flowers are borne on the ends of branchlets or in leaf axils in groups of 5 to 9, long, each flower more or less spherical, in diameter on a pedicel long with 20 to 40 carpels. Flowering occurs from September to February, and the fruit is a glossy bluish-black or glossy black drupe with a pale yellow to orange receptacle.
This species was first formally described in 1855 by Louis René Tulasne who gave it the name Mollinedia hugeliana in Annales des Sciences Naturelles.[2] [3] In 1868, Alphonse Pyramus de Candolle transferred the species to Wilkiea as W. hugeliana in Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis.[4] [5]
The natural distribution is from Mount Dromedary (36° S) near Narooma in south eastern New South Wales to Maryborough (25° S) in south eastern Queensland.[6] Veiny wilkiea grows in rainforest on the coast and ranges up to, and has a preference for volcanic soils.[7]
Wilkiea hugeliana is most likely pollinated by Thrips setipennis, a species of thrips. These insects have been found in both male and female flowers.[8] [9] [10] [11]
. Alexander Floyd. Rainforest Trees of Mainland South-eastern Australia. Inkata Press. 1989. 0-909605-57-2. 222.