Elaeocarpus carolinae facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Elaeocarpus carolinae
Scientific classification
Genus:	Elaeocarpus
Species:	carolinae

Elaeocarpus carolinae is a species of flowering plant in the family Elaeocarpaceae and is endemic to north-east Queensland. It is a tree with buttress roots at the base of the trunk, elliptic to oblong leaves with wavy-toothed edges, flowers with five white petals with lobed tips and spherical blue to purple fruit.

Description

Elaeocarpus carolinae is a tree that typically grows to a height or 8–24 m (26–79 ft) with buttress roots at the base of the trunk. The leaves are grouped near the ends of the twigs, elliptic to oblong with between ten and twenty-five wavy teeth on the edges, 55–100 mm (2.2–3.9 in) long and 18–26 mm (0.71–1.02 in) wide on a petiole 15–25 mm (0.59–0.98 in) long. The flowers are borne in groups of up to ten on a rachis 20–40 mm (0.79–1.57 in) long, each flower on a winged pedicel 2–4 mm (0.079–0.157 in) long. The flowers have five narrow egg-shaped sepals 10–11 mm (0.39–0.43 in) long and 2–3 mm (0.079–0.118 in) wide. The five petals are white, narrow oblong, 10–14 mm (0.39–0.55 in) long and about 2 mm (0.079 in) wide with thin lobes at the tip, and there are fifteen or sixteen stamens. The fruit is a more or less spherical drupe about 13–15 mm (0.51–0.59 in) long and 12–14 mm (0.47–0.55 in) wide.

Taxonomy

Elaeocarpus carolinae was first formally described in 1984 by Bernard Hyland and Mark James Elgar Coode in the Kew Bulletin from material collected in 1979.

Distribution and habitat

Elaeocarpus carolinae is endemic to north-east Queensland, where it is only known from the Windsor Tableland growing in rainforest at altitudes of 1,000–1,200 m (3,300–3,900 ft).

Conservation status

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