Triplarina calophylla


Triplarina calophylla is a species of flowering plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to a restricted area of north Queensland. It is a shrub with egg-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base, flowers with five sepals, five white petals and fourteen or fifteen stamens.

Description

Triplarina calophylla is a shrub that typically grows to a height of and has a grey, fibrous bark. The leaves are egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, long and wide on a petiole long. The flowers are arranged in leaf axils in pairs on a peduncle long. Each flower is about in diameter with bracts long. The sepal lobes are long and wide and more or less round and the petals are white, long and wide. There are fourteen or fifteen stamens on filaments long. Flowering has been recorded in July and October and the fruit is a hemispherical capsule long.

Taxonomy and naming

Triplarina calophylla was first formally described by Anthony Bean in 1995 and the description was published in the journal Austrobaileya from specimens he collected at Mount Abbot near Bowen in 1992. The specific epithet means "beautiful leaf" and refers to the attractive foliage.

Distribution and habitat

This triplarina is only known from two populations near Mount Abbot and Cape Upstart. It grows in shallow sandy soil in shrubland and woodland.

Conservation status

Triplarina calophylla is classified as of "least concern" under the Queensland Government Nature Conservation Act 1992.