''Elaeocarpus culminicola'', commonly known as Michael's quandong,
is a species of flowering plant in the family
Elaeocarpaceae and is native to parts of
Malesia and
Australasia. It is a tree with wavy leaves with wavy or toothed edges,
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 white, cream-coloured or pink flowers and more or less spherical fruit.
Description
''Elaeocarpus culmanicola'' is an evergreen tree to with a trunk diameter to . The leaves are glossy dark green, narrow elliptic to lance-shaped or egg-shaped, long and wide on a
petiole long. The leaves have wavy or toothed edges and are arranged spirally around, and crowded towards the end of the branches. The flowers are arranged in racemes up to about long and attached to the twig behind or below the leaves, each flower on a
pedicel up to long. The fragrance from the flowers is strong but not particularly pleasant. The five
sepals are long and the five petals are white to cream-coloured or pink, long and wide with about twenty-six lobes at the tip. The are about twenty-five to forty
stamen
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 filame ...
s. Flowering occurs in late winter and is normally profuse. The bright blue fruit is a more or less spherical or elliptic
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'') ...
about long and wide, appear in late spring and may stay on the branch until the next flowering.
[
]
Taxonomy
''Elaeocarpus culminicola'' was first formally described in 1892 by
Otto Warburg in ''
'' from specimens collected in the
Finisterre Range in 1888.
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 ...
(''culminicola'') means "peak dweller".
Range and habitat
Michael's quandong is native to the
Philippines,
Sulawesi
Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...
,
Maluku Islands,
New Guinea,
Bismarck Archipelago
The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about 50,000 square km.
History
The first inhabitants o ...
, the Northern Territory and Queensland, where it is an understorey tree in well developed rainforest. It is often associated with wet or swampy conditions.
Ecology
The fruits of ''E. culminicola'' are eaten by cassowaries
Cassowaries ( tpi, muruk, id, kasuari) are flightless birds of the genus ''Casuarius'' in the order Casuariiformes. They are classified as ratites (flightless birds without a keel (bird anatomy), keel on their sternum bones) and are native t ...
.
Uses
The timber is a commercial hardwood.
Gallery
File:Elaeocarpus_culminicola_leaves.jpg, Leaves of ''E. culminicola''
File:Elaeocarpus culminicola fruits.jpg, ''E. culminicola'' fruiting
File:Elaeocarpus_culminicola_Warb._(AM_AK134456).jpg, Specimen from Auckland Museum
The Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira (or simply the Auckland Museum) is one of New Zealand's most important museums and war memorials. Its collections concentrate on New Zealand history (and especially the history of the Auckla ...
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15316443
culminicola
Flora of Queensland
Flora of the Northern Territory
Flora of New Guinea
Plants described in 1892