''Quassia'' sp. 'Moonee Creek, the Moonee quassia, is a shrub found in north eastern

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

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 ...

. A rare plant, listed as

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...

by extinction. However, it has yet to be formally named. It grows below

eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as euca ...

forest, often in high rainfall areas. From the

Coffs Harbour Coffs Harbour is a city on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, north of Sydney, and south of Brisbane. It is one of the largest urban centres on the North Coast, with a population of 78,759 as per 2021 census. The Gumbaynggirr ...

, Dorrigo and Grafton regions, mostly at lower altitudes. Known from 18 locations between Moonee Beach in the south, to McCraes Knob which is some 12 km east of the Clarence River in the north. It was originally known from an ash heap at

Glenreagh Glenreagh is a small town in the Clarence Valley in the Northern Rivers region of north-eastern New South Wales, Australia. At the 2016 census, Glenreagh had a population of 900 people. It is on the North Coast railway line, completed to Gl ...

, next to the Dorrigo railway line. A bush to 2 metres tall, with narrow leaves, 10 cm long, alternate on the stem. Stems are usually not straight, (which indicates spasmodic growth patterns). Leaves are dark glossy green above, and paler below. The leaf veins are at a wide angle in relation to the mid-rib. Small green/red flowers form in clusters of one to four flowers. The fruit is a hairy red

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'') ...

, 5 to 10 mm long.

References

External links

* Quassia Flora of New South Wales Undescribed plant species {{Sapindales-stub