Cryptocarya obovata


Cryptocarya obovata, commonly known as pepperberry, white walnut, long tom, she beech or purple laurel, is a species of flowering plant in the laurel family and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a rainforest tree with oblong to egg-shaped leaves, the flowers creamy-green, tube-shaped and unpleasantly perfumed, and the fruit a spherical drupe with white or cream-coloured cotyledons.

Description

Cryptocarya obovata is a tree that typically grows to a height of up to with a dbh of, its stems sometimes buttressed. The leaves are oblong to egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, long, wide and usually glaucous. The hairy underside of the leaves gives the tree a rusty appearance when viewed from below. The leaf veins are brownish-orange or yellow and prominent with the midrib and lateral veins covered with brown hairs.
The flowers are creamy-green and unpleasantly perfumed, arranged in panicles shorter than the leaves. The perianth tube is long and wide and softly-hairy on the inside. The outer tepals are long and wide, the inner tepals long and wide. The ovary is long and wide and usually covered with soft hairs. Flowering occurs from January to May, and the fruit is a spherical black drupe, about long and wide, with white or cream-coloured cotyledons.

Taxonomy

Cryptocarya obovata was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown (botanist, [born 1773)|Robert Brown] in his book, Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae. The specific epithet means 'inverted egg-shape'.

Distribution and habitat

Pepperberry grows on basaltic and fertile alluvial soils in rainforests from Wyong in New South Wales to Gympie in Queensland. It is extinct in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, and was allegedly last seen in the Illawarra in 1818 by Allan Cunningham.

Ecology

Fruit ripen from March to May, and are eaten by Australasian figbird, rose-crowned fruit-dove, topknot pigeon and wompoo fruit dove.