Cryptocarya foetida

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Cryptocarya foetida
Cryptocarya-foetida.JPG
Stinking laurel
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Magnoliids
Order: Laurales
Family: Lauraceae
Genus: Cryptocarya
Species:
C. foetida
Binomial name
Cryptocarya foetida

Cryptocarya foetida is a rainforest tree growing at the eastern coastal parts of Australia. The common name is due to the allegedly offensive odour given by the flowers. The stinking cryptocarya or stinking laurel is considered vulnerable to extinction with a ROTAP rating of 3VC.

Contents

Habitat

Growing on littoral rainforest on sand between Iluka, New South Wales and Fraser Island in Queensland. Much of the habitat of Cryptocarya foetida was destroyed by repeated burnings and clearing for seaside housing and development.

Description

Cryptocarya foetida is a small or medium-sized tree up to 20 metres tall and 20 cm in diameter with a dark green crown.

The trunk is greyish brown, slightly fissured, cylindrical, not buttressed but slightly flanged at the base.

Leaves are typical of many Australian laurels. Alternate, simple, not toothed, ovate to ovate lanceolate, smooth, thick and shiny with a transparent margin, tapering to a blunt point. 8 to 13 cm long by 4 to 5 cm broad. The yellowish venation is conspicuous, particularly on the underside.

Cream flowers appear in summer. The fruit matures in winter, being purplish/black globular drupe, around 8 to 10 mm in diameter. Like most Australian Cryptocarya fruit, removal of the fleshy aril is advised to assist seed germination.

Related Research Articles

<i>Cryptocarya</i> Genus of flowering plants

Cryptocarya is a genus of evergreen trees belonging to the laurel family, Lauraceae. The genus includes more than 350 species, distributed through the Neotropical, Afrotropical, Indomalayan, and Australasian realms.

<i>Eupomatia laurina</i> Species of plant in the family Eupomatiaceae

Eupomatia laurina, commonly named bolwarra, native guava or copper laurel, is a species of plant in the primitive flowering-plant family Eupomatiaceae, endemic to Australia and New Guinea. It grows to between 3 and 5 m tall, but larger specimens may attain a height of 15 m (50 ft) and a trunk diameter of 30 cm (12 in). In Australia, it is found in humid forests of the east coast, from as far south as Nowa Nowa in Victoria, north through New South Wales and Queensland to tropical Cape York Peninsula. It usually grows as an understorey plant in rainforests or humid Eucalypt forests.

<i>Cryptocarya williwilliana</i> Species of tree

Cryptocarya williwilliana is a shrub or small rainforest tree and is commonly known as the small leaved laurel. It is confined to dry rainforest on steep rocky limestone slopes or at the base of limestone cliffs. It grows in remote areas at an altitude of 250 to 800 metres in the Macleay River valley near Kempsey, Australia. Maximum height is around 6 metres.

<i>Cryptocarya microneura</i> Species of tree

Cryptocarya microneura is a rainforest tree growing at the eastern coastal parts of Australia.

<i>Cryptocarya rigida</i> Species of tree

Cryptocarya rigida is a small tree or shrub growing in high rainfall areas in north eastern New South Wales, Australia. It was described in 1864 by Carl Meissner in Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis. Extinct in the Illawarra region, allegedly seen in the Illawarra in 1818 by Allan Cunningham.

<i>Cryptocarya glaucescens</i> Species of tree

Cryptocarya glaucescens, commonly known as jackwood, is a rainforest tree of the laurel family growing in eastern Australia.

<i>Endiandra sieberi</i> Species of tree

Endiandra sieberi, known as the corkwood is a rainforest tree growing in eastern Australia.

<i>Cryptocarya obovata</i> Species of tree

Cryptocarya obovata is a species of laurel growing on basaltic and fertile alluvial soils in eastern Australian rainforests. It is found from Wyong in New South Wales to Gympie in the state of Queensland. Extinct in the Illawarra region, allegedly seen in the Illawarra in 1818 by Allan Cunningham. The species was included in the Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen, 402 (1810)

<i>Cryptocarya laevigata</i> Species of tree

Cryptocarya laevigata, known as the glossy laurel or red-fruited laurel, is a rainforest plant growing in eastern Australia. The natural range of distribution is rainforest understorey on fertile soils, from the Richmond River, New South Wales to Cairns in tropical Queensland. Often seen in association with the White Booyong.

<i>Cryptocarya foveolata</i> Species of tree

Cryptocarya foveolata, known as the mountain walnut is a rainforest tree growing at high altitude in eastern Australia. Despite the common name, it belongs to the laurel family.

<i>Cryptocarya triplinervis</i> Species of tree in the family Lauraceae

Cryptocarya triplinervis is a rainforest tree growing in eastern Australia. Common names include the three veined laurel, three veined cryptocarya and the brown laurel.

<i>Cryptocarya meissneriana</i> Species of tree

Cryptocarya meissneriana, known as the thick-leaved laurel is a small tree growing in eastern Australia. The habitat is rainforest on the poorer sedimentary soils.

<i>Endiandra pubens</i> Species of tree

Endiandra pubens is a rainforest tree growing in eastern Australia. The habitat is subtropical rainforest growing near streams in valleys. The range of natural distribution is from the Bellinger River, New South Wales to Bulburin National Park, south west of Gladstone, Queensland.

<i>Cryptocarya bidwillii</i> Species of tree

Cryptocarya bidwillii, the yellow laurel, is a small to medium-sized tree in the laurel family. Occurring in Australian rainforests from Nymboida in the state of New South Wales to Townsville in tropical Queensland. Often found in the dryer ridges in dry rainforest or in viney scrubs.

<i>Cryptocarya floydii</i> Species of tree

Cryptocarya floydii is an Australian rainforest tree. It occurs in steep dry rocky gullies in northern New South Wales and adjacent areas in Queensland as far north as Bunya Mountains National Park. It grows as far south as the upper gullies of the Guy Fawkes River and the Macleay River. The common name is gorge laurel or Glenugie laurel, after the type locality of Glenugie Peak, near Grafton, New South Wales.

<i>Endiandra introrsa</i> Species of tree

Endiandra introrsa is a rare rainforest tree growing in eastern Australia. Listed with a Rare or Threatened Australian Plants (ROTAP) rating of 3RCa. Its habitat is warm temperate rainforest on the poorer rainforest soils, mostly over 300 metres in altitude, and its range of natural distribution is from near Dorrigo to various sites in the state of Queensland.

<i>Cryptocarya nova-anglica</i> Species of tree

Cryptocarya nova-anglica, the mountain laurel, is a rainforest tree growing in eastern Australia. The habitat is a restricted distribution in cool temperate rainforest mostly over 1,100 metres (3,609 ft) in altitude. The range of natural distribution is from the upper Hastings River to near the border of the state of Queensland. It is an understorey tree, associated with the Antarctic beech, possumwood, golden sassafras and black olive berry trees.

<i>Corynocarpus rupestris</i> Species of flowering plant

Corynocarpus rupestris, commonly known as the Glenugie karaka, is a rainforest tree found in eastern Australia. It is a rare plant with a ROTAP rating of 2VC-t. There are two sub-species; arborescens is a small hairless shrub or tree up to 13 metres (45 ft) tall with a stem diameter up to 40 cm (16 in), and sub-species rupestris grows only to 6 metres (20 ft), with a stem diameter up to 17 cm (7 in).

<i>Neolitsea australiensis</i> Species of tree

Neolitsea australiensis, also known as the green bolly gum, is an Australian rainforest tree, in the laurel family. The specific epithet is derived from "Australia", and the Latin "ensis"; meaning "native of Australia".

<i>Cryptocarya gregsonii</i> Species of flowering plant

Cryptocarya gregsonii, commonly known as native blackbutt, black plum or laurel, is a flowering plant in the laurel family. The specific epithet honours Jesse Gregson of Newcastle, New South Wales, a botanical friend of Maiden.

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