''Alectryon diversifolius'' , commonly named scrub boonaree or holly bush, is a species of Australian small trees of the plant family

Sapindaceae The Sapindaceae are a family of flowering plants in the order Sapindales known as the soapberry family. It contains 138 genera and 1858 accepted species. Examples include horse chestnut, maples, ackee and lychee. The Sapindaceae occur in tempera ...

Description

''Alectryon diversifolius'' grows as a shrub up to 4 m high, with simple leaves often clustered on short branchlets. Leaf shape is highly variable even on individual plants, ranging from oval to lanceolate to strongly serrated and

holly ''Ilex'' (), or holly, is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...

-like.

Distribution and habitat

The species occurs in central and south-eastern Qld and north-eastern N.S.W. Usually growing in

Brigalow ''Acacia harpophylla'', commonly known as brigalow, brigalow spearwood or orkor, is an endemic tree of Australia. The Aboriginal Australian group the Gamilaraay peoples know the tree as Barranbaa or Burrii. It is found in central and coasta ...

scrub in dark clay.

Taxonomy

It was first described by

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...

in 1858 as ''Heterodendrum diversifolius'',Mueller, F.J.H. von (1858), Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 1(3): 46 but was moved to the genus, '' Alectryon'' by

Sally T. Reynolds Sally T. Reynolds (born 1932) is an Australian botanist. She worked at the Queensland Herbarium as principal botanist and as a specialist on Australian Sapindaceae. Paul Irwin Forster, Paul Forster named ''Synima reynoldsiae'' in recognition of ...

in 1987.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4714313 diversifolius Flora of Queensland Flora of New South Wales Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller