''Elaeocarpus ferruginiflorus'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Elaeocarpaceae and is endemic to north-east Queensland. It is a small to medium-sized tree, sometimes with buttress roots at the base of the trunk, elliptic to egg-shaped leaves, flowers with five white petals, and dark bluish-grey fruit.

Description

''Elaeocarpus ferruginiflorus'' is a tree that typically grows to a height of , sometimes with buttress roots at the base of the trunk. Its young leaves and shoots are densely covered with rust-coloured hairs. The leaves are elliptic to egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, long and wide on a petiole long. The flowers are borne in groups of up to about ten on a rachis long, each flower on a pedicel long. The flowers are densely covered with woolly reddish brown hairs. The five sepals are long and wide , the five petals thick, about long and wide, sometimes with about three indistinct teeth on the tip, and there are 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 mainly occurs in January and the fruit is a more or less spherical or oval, dark bluish-grey

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, present from July to October.

Taxonomy

''Elaeocarpus ferruginiflorus'' was first formally described in 1933 by Cyril Tenison White in ''Contributions from the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University'' from material collected in on

Mount Bellenden Ker Mount Bellenden Ker is the second-highest mountain in Queensland, Australia, with a height of . It is named after the botanist John Bellenden Ker Gawler. Located south of Cairns near Babinda, it is adjacent to Mount Bartle Frere, the state's ...

Distribution and habitat

''Elaeocarpus ferruginiflorus'' grows in rainforest at altitudes between . It is restricted to the area between

Cedar Bay National Park Ngalba Bulal is a national park in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. In 2015, Cedar Bay National Park became the Mangkalba (Cedar Bay) section of the Ngalba Bulal National Park. Geography The park is northwest of Brisbane, south o ...

and Hinchinbrook Island.

Conservation status

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

Use in horticulture

This small, slow-growing tree features rusty-coloured new growth.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15316804 Oxalidales of Australia ferruginiflorus Flora of Queensland Plants described in 1933 Endemic flora of Australia Taxa named by Cyril Tenison White