''Cryptocarya lividula'', commonly known as blue 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 north Queensland. It is a tree with lance-shaped to egg-shaped leaves, creamy green, unpleasantly perfumed flowers, and more or less spherical, purplish-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 lividula'' is a tree that typically grows to a height of up to , its stems usually buttressed. Its leaves are lance-shaped to egg-shaped, long and wide with a conspicuous, bluish sheen, 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 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 wide. Flowering occurs from November to January, and the fruit is a purplish-black, more or less spherical drupe, long and wide with cream-coloured cotyledons.

Taxonomy

''Cryptocarya lividula'' was first formally described in 1989 by Bernard Hyland in '' Australian Systematic Botany'' from specimens collected in 1980. 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 ...

(''lividula'') means 'a dull, bluish grey'.

Distribution and habitat

''Cryptocarya lividula'' grows in rainforest at altitudes between between

Cooktown Cooktown is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. Cooktown is at the mouth of the Endeavour River, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland where James Cook beached his ship, the Endeavour, for repairs ...

and Koombooloomba in north Queensland.

Conservation status

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

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15608302 lividula Trees of Australia Flora of Queensland Laurales of Australia Taxa named by Bernard Hyland Plants described in 1989