''Elaeocarpus hylobroma'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Elaeocarpaceae and is endemic to north-east Queensland. It is a small tree with elliptic to egg-shaped leaves with a few serrations near the tip,

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 flowers and dull blue, oval fruit.

Description

''Elaeocarpus hylobroma'' is a small tree typically growing to a height of , often coppicing and with pinkish-red adventitious roots. The leaves are clustered near the ends of the branchlets, elliptic to egg-shaped or oblong, long and wide on a petiole long. The leaves are glossy green on the upper surface, paler below, and have between two and six serrations on the outer edges. The flowers are arranged in racemes long with between five and twenty flowers on pale green, sparsely hairy pedicels long. The flowers have five cream-coloured to white sepals and wide and five, similarly-sized white petals, the tips with between six and nine narrow triangular lobes. There are between eleven and fourteen

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 November and the fruit is a dull blue, oval

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'') ...

with pale speckles and long, in diameter.

Taxonomy

''Elaeocarpus hylobroma'' was first formally described in 2012 by

Yumiko Baba Yumiko is a feminine Japanese given name. Possible writings Yumiko can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: *弓子, "bow, child". *由美子, "reason/cause, beauty, child". *結実子, "fruition, child". *夕実子, "evenin ...

and

Darren M. Crayn Darren is a masculine given name of uncertain etymological origins. Some theories state that it originated from an Anglicisation of the Irish first name Darragh or Dáire, meaning "Oak Tree". According to other sources, it is thought to come from ...

in the ''Kew Bulletin'' from specimens collected in the Dinden National Park near Mareeba in 2004. 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 ...

(''hylobroma'') means "forest food", referring to the value of the seeds as a food source for native animals.

Distribution and habitat

This species of ''Elaeocarpus'' grows in mountain rainforest at altitudes between in the

Wet Tropics The Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Site consists of approximately 8,940 km2 of Australian wet tropical forests growing along the north-east Queensland portion of the Great Dividing Range. The Wet Tropics of Queensland meets all f ...

bioregion of north-east Queensland.

Conservation status

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

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q43294526 hylobroma Oxalidales of Australia Plants described in 2012