Pentaceras
Pentaceras is a monotypic genus of plants in the citrus family Rutaceae. The sole included species is Pentaceras australe, commonly known as bastard crow's ash, penta ash or black teak. It is a medium-sized rainforest tree endemic to eastern Australia, first described in 1862.
Description
Pentaceras australe is a tree that typically grows to a height of with a dbh of. The bark is smooth and grey fawn with small horizontal lines, flanged at the base of larger trees. The leaves are pinnate, long with five to fifteen leaflets. The leaflets are egg-shaped to lance-shaped, long and wide, the side leaflets sessile or on a petiolule up to long, the end leaflet on a petiolule long. The flowers are about in diameter and are borne in perfumed panicles long, the sepals long and the petals white, long. Flowering occurs from June to October and the fruit is a samara long, the seed about long.
Taxonomy
The genus Pentaceras was first formally described in 1862 by George Bentham and Joseph Dalton Hooker in Genera Plantarum. In 1863, Ferdinand von Mueller described Cookia australis in Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae and in 1863, Bentham changed the name to Pentaceras australe in Flora Australiensis.
Distribution and habitat
Pentaceras australe grows in rainforest, often dry rainforest, from near sea level to an altitude of and occurs from near Gympie in Queensland to near Stroud in New South Wales.
Conservation status
Bastard crow's ash is classified as of "least concern" under the Queensland Government Nature Conservation Act 1992.