Cerbera floribunda
Cerbera floribunda, commonly known as cassowary plum, grey milkwood, or rubber tree, is a plant in the family Apocynaceae which is native to the region from Sulawesi to the Solomon Islands, including northeast Queensland.
Description
Cerbera floribunda is a tree that grows up to in height. The bark is brown to grey/black, and the sap wood and heart wood are both white. Leaves are lanceolate-elliptic, glossy green above and paler beneath, alternate or whorled and crowded towards the ends of the twigs. They measure up to long by wide, with 13 to 20 curved lateral veins and are attached by a long petiole up to long.The inflorescence is a much branched cyme up to with usually more than 50 flowers. The flowers have 5 white sepals, a corolla tube up to by wide with 5 free lobes at the end. They are white with a pink or red centre, are about in diameter, and have a sweet scent.
Fruits are a bright blue/purple drupe measuring about long by wide, slightly pointed and the end away from the pedicel, with a single large seed.
Taxonomy
Cerbera floribunda was first described by Karl Moritz Schumann in Die Flora von Kaiser Wilhelms Land in 1889.Distribution and habitat
This is a tropical plant and favours abundant water. The native range is from Sulawesi, east through the Maluku Islands and New Guinea to Solomon Islands, and south to Queensland; it is widespread throughout the range and not considered to be endangered. It is generally found along creeks and marshes and always near permanent water. Altitudinal range in Australia is from sea level to.Ecology
Fruits are swallowed whole by southern cassowaries, who are not affected by the toxins contained within. They then excrete the seeds later, helping to distribute them. The cassowary is the only animal able to provide this function, due to the size of the fruits, and this forms a classic example of a symbiotic relationship between the two species.Rodents, in particular the giant white-tailed rat, eat the kernels after stripping away the flesh but in this case it is unlikely to germinate.