''Van-royena'' is a genus of the plant family Sapotaceae described as a genus in 1963. There is only one known species, ''Van-royena castanosperma'', which is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the Cook region in northern

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref> It grows at altitudes of above sea level, in

rainforests Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainforest ...

.William Cooper and Wendy Cooper

Description

It is a tree that can grow up to tall, with a stem that's bark

exudate An exudate is a fluid emitted by an organism through pores or a wound, a process known as exuding or exudation. ''Exudate'' is derived from ''exude'' 'to ooze' from Latin ''exsūdāre'' 'to (ooze out) sweat' (''ex-'' 'out' and ''sūdāre'' 'to ...

s (fluid emitted by an organism through pores or a wound) quite conspicuous. The narrow, yellowish, vertical stripes in the blaze shaded bark layer is thin, about 2-3 mm. It has simple leaves, that are long and wide. The petioles (leaf stalks) and twigs produce a milky exudate. It has a corolla (the collective term for the petals) is about long, usually glabrous (lacking surface ornamentation) on both surfaces but the margins of the lobes are minutely ciliate (has small hairs). The stamens are attached well below the throat of the flower tube. The staminodes (sterile stamen) are subulate, about long. The

ovary The ovary is an organ in the female reproductive system that produces an ovum. When released, this travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus, where it may become fertilized by a sperm. There is an ovary () found on each side of the body. ...

is about in diam., densely ferruginously (ruddy or rust-colored) and villous (covered with long, soft, straight hairs). The style is about long. Between October and February, it produces ovoid shaped fruit (or seed capsules), which are long and wide. It has 1-3 seeds per fruit, which are long and wide. The testa (seed coat) is thick, hard and woody. The hilum (scar on a seed coat where it separates from its stalk) is long and wide.

Taxonomy

It has several common names including; milky plum, yellow plum, saffron boxwood and poison plum. Under the Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NCA) of Australia, its status is

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

. The genus name of ''Van-royena'' is in honour of

Pieter van Royen Pieter van Royen (1923-2002) was a Dutch botanist. He is an author of many papers on the flora of New Guinea. Life Pieter van Royen was born in Lahat (town), Lahat, South Sumatra in Dutch East Indies. In 1933, he moved with his family from the Du ...

(1923–2002), a Dutch botanist. He was an author of many papers on the flora of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

. The Latin

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 ...

of ''castanosperma'' refers to the evergreen tree of ''

Castanospermum ''Castanospermum australe'' (Moreton Bay chestnut or blackbean), the only species in the genus ''Castanospermum'', is a flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to the east coast of Australia in Queensland and New South Wales, and to the ...

'' (in the family

Fabaceae The Fabaceae or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomenc ...

), also from Queensland. Both the genus and the species were first described and published in Adansonia, n.s., Vol.3 on page 329 in 1963. The genus is recognized by the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, ...

and the

Agricultural Research Service The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is the principal in-house research agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). ARS is one of four agencies in USDA's Research, Education and Economics mission area. ARS is charged with ext ...

, but they do not list any known species.

References

Other sources

* Swenson, U. et al. 2007. Phylogeny, diagnostic characters, and generic limitation of Australasian Chrysophylloideae (Sapotaceae, Ericales): evidence from ITS sequence data and morphology. Cladistics 23:201-228. {{Taxonbar, from=Q2719548, from2=Q15330907 Chrysophylloideae Endemic flora of Australia Monotypic Ericales genera Sapotaceae genera Plants described in 1963 Flora of Queensland Taxa named by André Aubréville Taxa named by Cyril Tenison White