Elaeocarpus arnhemicus
Elaeocarpus arnhemicus, commonly known as elaeocarpus, blue plum, bony quandong or Arnhem Land quandong, is species of flowering plant in the family Elaeocarpaceae and is native to northern Australia, New Guinea, Timor and certain other islands in the Indonesian Archipelago. It is a tree with narrow elliptic to lance-shaped or egg-shaped leaves with serrated edges, racemes of white or cream-coloured flowers and metallic blue fruit.
Description
Elaeocarpus arnhemicus is a tree. Although it was once believed to often grow as a shrub and only grow to a height of with a Diameter at [breast height|DBH] of up to, it is now known that it can become a much larger plant, to high.The leaves are narrow elliptic to lance-shaped or egg-shaped, long and wide with serrations on the edges, on a petiole long. The flowers are arranged in racemes up to long, each flower on a pedicel up to long. The sepals are ovate, long and wide. The petals are obovate, white or cream-coloured, long and wide, the tip with 7-12 linear lobes. Both the petals and sepals are usually only long. There are between fifteen and eighteen, sometimes up to twenty, stamens and the style is long and glabrous. Flowering occurs from January to July and the fruit is an elliptical, metallic blue drupe long and wide.
This species is best identified among other Elaeocarpus species when in flower.
Taxonomy and naming
Elaeocarpus arnhemicus was first formally described in 1868 by Ferdinand von Mueller in his book Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae.It is placed in the Fissipetalum group of Elaeocarpus species.