''Cryptocarya cercophylla'' is a species of flowering plant in the
laurel family and is
endemic to
Wooroonooran National Park in north Queensland. It is a poorly-formed tree with egg-shaped to elliptic leaves, the flowers creamy-green or cream-coloured and tube-shaped, and the fruit an elliptic, red to shiny black
drupe
In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or '' pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel'') ...
.
Description
''Cryptocarya cercophylla'' is a small, poorly-formed tree that typically grows to a height of , sometimes with
coppice shoots at the base, its stems not
buttressed. Its leaves are egg-shaped to elliptic, long and wide on a
petiole long. The flowers are usually arranged in
raceme
A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...
s of 4 to 7, long and are not fragrant. The
tepals are creamy-green or cream-coloured, the outer
tepals long and wide, the inner tepals long and wide. Flowering has been observed in July and from October to December, and the fruit is a red to shiny black, elliptic or egg-shaped drupe long and wide.
Taxonomy
''Cryptocarya cercophylla'' was first formally described in 2013 by
Wendy Elizabeth Cooper in the journal ''
Austrobaileya'' from specimens collected near
Mount Bartle Frere
Mount Bartle Frere (pronunciation mæɔnt̥ ˈbɐːɾəɫ ˈfɹɪə Ngajanji: Choorechillum) is the highest mountain in Queensland at an elevation of . The mountain was named after Sir Henry Bartle Frere, 1st Baronet, Sir Henry Bartle Frere ...
.
The
specific epithet
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
(''cercophylla'') means 'tail-leaf', referring to the tail-like tip of the leaf.
Distribution and habitat
This species of ''Cryptocarya'' grows as an understorey tree in high rainfall rainforest in Wooroonooran National Park in the
Wet Tropics bioregion or north-eastern Queensland.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q18077756
Laurales of Australia
Trees of Australia
Flora of Queensland
cercophylla
Plants described in 2013