''Pentaceras australe'', commonly known as bastard crow's ash, penta ash or black teak, is the only species in the genus ''Pentaceras'' in the plant family Rutaceae. It is a small to medium-sized rainforest tree endemic to eastern Australia. It has pinnate leaves with up to fifteen leaflets, small white flowers 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 on the ends of branchlets, and winged seeds.

Description

''Pentaceras australe'' is a tree that typically grows to a height of with a dbh of . The bark is smooth and grey fawn with small horizontal lines, flanged at the base of larger trees. The leaves are pinnate, long with five to fifteen leaflets. The leaflets are egg-shaped to lance-shaped, long and wide, the side leaflets sessile or on a

petiolule In botany, the petiole () is the stalk that attaches the leaf blade to the stem, and is able to twist the leaf to face the sun. This gives a characteristic foliage arrangement to the plant. Outgrowths appearing on each side of the petiole in som ...

up to long, the end leaflet on a petiolule long. The flowers are about in diameter and are borne in perfumed panicles long, the sepals long and the petals white, long. Flowering occurs from June to October and the fruit is a

samara Samara ( rus, Сама́ра, p=sɐˈmarə), known from 1935 to 1991 as Kuybyshev (; ), is the largest city and administrative centre of Samara Oblast. The city is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Samara (Volga), Samara rivers, with ...

long, the seed about long.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Pentaceras'' was first formally described in 1862 by George Bentham and Joseph Dalton Hooker in '' Genera Plantarum''. In 1863,

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...

described ''Cookia australis'' in '' Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae'' and in 1863, Bentham changed the name to ''Pentaceras australe'' in '' Flora Australiensis''.

Distribution and habitat

''Pentaceras australe'' grows in rainforest, often dry rainforest, from near sea level to an altitude of and occurs from near Gympie in Queensland to near

Stroud Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021. Below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the Five ...

in New South Wales.

Conservation status

Bastard crow's ash is classified as of "least concern" under the Queensland Government '' Nature Conservation Act 1992''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q18080592, from2=Q9058044 Zanthoxyloideae Zanthoxyloideae genera Trees of Australia Flora of New South Wales Flora of Queensland Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller Monotypic Rutaceae genera