Cryptocarya whiffiniana


Cryptocarya whiffiniana is a species of flowering plant in the family Lauraceae and is endemic to north Queensland. It is a tree with oblong, lance-shaped or narrowly elliptic leaves, creamy green flowers, and elliptic glaucous or black drupes.

Description

Cryptocarya whiffiniana is a tree that typically grows to a height of up to, its stems buttressed. Its leaves are oblong, lance-shaped or narrowly elliptic, long and wide, on a petiole long. The flowers are creamy green but not perfumed, and arranged in panicles shorter than the leaves. The perianth tube is long and about wide, the outer tepals long and wide, the inner tepals long and about wide. The outer anthers are long and wide, the inner anthers long and wide. Flowering has been recorded in
August and November, and the fruit is an elliptic glaucous or black drupe, long and wide with cream-coloured cotyledons.

Taxonomy

Cryptocarya whiffiniana was first formally described in 2007 by J. Le Cussan and Bernard Hyland in the appendix to the Flora of Australia from specimens collected near Gadgarra in 1988. The specific epithet honours "Dr. Trevor Whiffin...who has a long-standing interest in rainforest species".

Distribution and habitat

This species of Cryptocarya grows in rainforest at altitudes from from the Lamb Range to the Gadgarra area in north Queensland.

Conservation status

This species of Cryptocarya is listed as "of least concern" under the Queensland Government Nature Conservation Act 1992.