''Xylomelum cunninghamianum'' is a species of flowering plant in the family

Proteaceae The Proteaceae form a family of flowering plants predominantly distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises 83 genera with about 1,660 known species. Together with the Platanaceae and Nelumbonaceae, they make up the order Pro ...

and 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 eastern Australia. It is a shrub or small tree with narrow elliptic to lance-shaped leaves with toothed edges when young, groups of flowers covered with brownish hairs and oval fruit densely covered with velvety rust-coloured to grey hair.

Description

''Xylomelum cunninghamianum'' is a shrub or small tree that typically grows to a height of with its new growth covered with short, brownish hair. The leaves are narrow elliptic to lance-shaped with a pointed tip, long and wide. Its juvenile leaves are long and wide with up to five large teeth on each side. The flowers are arranged on spikes long, each flower long and covered with short brown hairs. Flowering occurs from February to May and the fruit is an oval follicle long and wide covered with velvety rust-coloured to grey hair. The seeds are pale brown, long and wide. This species differs from '' X. pyriforme'' by its more robust habit, and larger leaves, flowers and fruits.

Taxonomy

''Xylomelum cunninghamianum'' was first formally described in 1987 by

Donald Bruce Foreman Don Foreman was an Australian botanist who worked on the Monimiaceae and Proteaceae of Australia. He also helped with the editing of selected Flora of Victoria and Flora of Australia Volumes. Career After Foreman graduated from the Univers ...

in the journal '' Muelleria'' from specimens he collected near Wallangra in 1985. 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 ...

(''cunninghamianum'') honours Allan Cunningham.

Distribution and habitat

''Xylomelum cunninghamianum'' grows in forest and woodland in sandy soil and is found in scattered population from the

Blackdown Tableland National Park Blackdown Tableland is a national park in the Central Highlands Region, Queensland, Australia. Geography The park is in Central Queensland, northwest of Brisbane. The mountainous terrain of the tablelands provides a unique landscape featurin ...

in inland south-eastern Queensland to the Coolatai-Wallangra area in north-eastern New South Wales.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q8045459 cunninghamianum Proteales of Australia Trees of Australia Flora of Queensland Flora of New South Wales Plants described in 1987