Cupaniopsis cooperorum


Cupaniopsis cooperorum, commonly known as Cooper's puzzle, is a species of flowering plant in the soapberry family and is endemic to Queensland. It is a small tree with paripinnate leaves with 8 to 14 lance-shaped leaflets with the narrower end towards the base, separate male and female, cream-coloured flowers arranged in panicles, the fruit an orange-pink capsule.

Description

Cupaniopsis cooperorum is small tree that typically grows to a height of up to and often has many stems. The leaves are paripinnate with about 8 to 14 leaflets on a petiole long, the leaflets lance-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, long wide on a rhachis long and the edges wavy. Separate male and female flowers are borne in panicles long, each flower on a pedicel long. The sepals have three large lobes long and two smaller lobes. The petals are about long with hairy glands on the inner surface and there are 8 stamens. The fruit is orange-pink and about long and wide. The seeds are glossy black and almost covered an orange aril.

Taxonomy

Cupaniopsis cooperorum was first formally described in 2002 by Paul Irwin Forster in the journal Austrobaileya from specimens collected in the Wooroonooran National Park in 2002. The specific epithet honours the botanist Wendy Elizabeth Cooper and her husband, William "Bill" Cooper.

Distribution and habitat

Cooper's puzzle grows in vineforest on red basalt soils on the Atherton Tableland at altitudes between.