''Cryptocarya leucophylla'', commonly known as northern laurel, is a species of flowering plant in the family

Lauraceae Lauraceae, or the laurels, is a plant family that includes the true laurel and its closest relatives. This family comprises about 2850 known species in about 45 genera worldwide (Christenhusz & Byng 2016 ). They are dicotyledons, and occur ma ...

and is endemic to Queensland. It is a tree with elliptic to egg-shaped leaves, creamy green, unpleasantly perfumed flowers, and elliptic to more or less spherical, 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 leucophylla'' is a tree that typically grows to a height of up to , its stems buttressed. Its leaves are elliptic to egg-shaped, sometimes with the narrower end towards the base, long and wide on a petiole long. The flowers are arranged in

panicle A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a panicle are of ...

s in leaf axils shorter or only slightly longer than the leaves. They are creamy green and unpleasantly perfumed. The perianth tube is long, wide. The outer

anthers The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filam ...

are long and wide, the inner anthers long and about wide. Flowering occurs from January to March, and the fruit is an elliptic to more or less spherical, black drupe, long and wide with yellowish cotyledons.

Taxonomy

''Cryptocarya leucophylla'' was first formally described in 1989 by Bernard Hyland in '' Australian Systematic Botany'' from specimens collected in 1985. 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 ...

(''leucophylla'') means 'white leaved'.

Distribution and habitat

''Cryptocarya leucophylla'' grows in mountain rainforest at altitudes between .

Conservation status

This ''Cryptocarya'' is listed as of "least concern" under the Queensland Government '' Nature Conservation Act 1992''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15607777 leucophylla Trees of Australia Flora of Queensland Laurales of Australia Taxa named by Bernard Hyland Plants described in 1989