Acronychia acuminata
Acronychia acuminata, commonly known as Thornton aspen, is a species of shrub or small rainforest tree that is endemic to north-eastern Queensland. It has simple leaves on stems that are more or cylindrical, flowers in small groups in leaf axils and fleshy, oval to spherical fruit.
Description
Acronychia acuminata is a tree that typically grows to a height of but flowers when only shrub-sized. It has more or less cylindrical stems and simple, glabous, elliptical leaves long and wide on a petiole long. The flowers are arranged in small groups about long in leaf axils, each flower on a pedicel long. The four sepals are about wide, the four petals about long and the eight stamens alternate in length. Flowering occurs in July and the fruit is a fleshy, oval or spherical drupe long.
Taxonomy
Acronychia acuminata was first formally described in 1974 by Thomas Gordon Hartley in the Journal of the Arnold Arboretum from specimens collected between the Daintree and Bloomfield Rivers.
Distribution and habitat
Thornton Aspen grows in rainforest between the Bloomfield Range and Daintree Range, at an altitudes of about.
Conservation status
Thornton aspen is classified as "near threatened" under the Queensland Government Nature Conservation Act 1992.