''Meryta latifolia'', commonly known as broad-leaved meryta or shade tree, is an

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

endemic to

Norfolk Island Norfolk Island (, ; Norfuk: ''Norf'k Ailen'') is an external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia, directly east of Australia's Evans Head and about from Lord Howe Island. Together with ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, where it occurs in subtropical moist forest conditions.

Description

''Meryta latifolia'' grows as a single-trunked tree reaching tall. It may have a few branches near the top. Its wood is brittle. The wide leaves grow to in length by across. They are oblanceolate in shape, having a narrowed base and broad, rounded apex. The female inflorescence grows in a panicle at the end of the branch and is long, and densely clustered. The fruit is round, 5 to 6 mm long, bluntly 5 or 6-ribbed. Convicts apparently used the large leaves to wrap up dough to bake in ashes.

Taxonomy

Stephan Endlicher Stephan Ladislaus Endlicher also known as Endlicher István László (24 June 1804, Bratislava (Pozsony) – 28 March 1849, Vienna) was an Austrian botanist, numismatist and Sinologist. He was a director of the Botanical Garden of Vienna. Bio ...

described the species as ''Botryodendrum latifolium'' in 1792. German botanist Berthold Carl Seemann gave the species its current name in 1862.

Distribution and status

''Meryta latifolia'' occurs only on Norfolk Island, and is considered critically endangered because it is dioecious, having separate male and female plants. The total number of mature individual plants is less than 150, the effective reproductive population limited by the number of surviving female plants, which number approximately 20. It occurs on ten sites on Norfolk Island, but most of these contain only one or two plants and only one site has more than 13. Although one site contains approximately 115 trees, regeneration is not occurring at this site. Continuing declines in the number of mature individuals, and number of locations and subpopulations are projected for several reasons including: lack of formal protection or management programs, the vulnerability of small populations to stochastic disturbance events (e.g. cyclones), ongoing competition with invasive weeds, predation by rats, senescence of over-mature plants, and sex ratio bias. The species is adapted to moist forest conditions and is therefore susceptible to unfavourable climate change (projected increases in the incidence of drought and extreme rainfall events that cause physical damage).

Ecology

The introduced song thrush nests in its foliage.

Cultivation

Rare in cultivation, ''M. latifolia'' may be grown fairly easily in warm frost-free climates like those of Sydney, Australia, or Florida in the United States. A slightly hardier alternative is the New Zealand Puka tree, '' M. sinclairii'', with huge broad leaves, which can withstand frosts down to -2C once established.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q6821003 Apiales of Australia latifolia Flora of Norfolk Island Trees of Australia Plants described in 1792