''Canarium australianum'', commonly known as scrub turpentine, is a species of tree in the family

Burseraceae The Burseraceae are a moderate-sized family of 17-19 genera and about 540 species of woody flowering plants. The actual numbers given in taxonomic sources differ according to taxonomic revision at the time of writing. The Burseraceae are also ...

native to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. Other common names include mango bark, carrot wood, parsnip wood, Melville Island white beech and brown cudgerie.

Description

''Canarium australianum'' is a tree growing up to tall. The trunk has a rough grey bark and it may be buttressed. The large compound leaves can reach in length with between 7 and 15 leaflets that usually measure about , sometimes larger. The leaflets are normally ; the midrib and lateral veins are raised on the upper surface, and have a distinctive pale yellow colour. The inflorescences are

panicle In botany, a panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a p ...

s about long produced from the . Flowers are fragrant and have 3 pale green or cream petals measuring about long. This species is

dioecious Dioecy ( ; ; adj. dioecious, ) is a characteristic of certain species that have distinct unisexual individuals, each producing either male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproduction is ...

, meaning that (functionally female) and (functionally male) flowers are borne on separate plants. The fruit is a dark blue or grey, ovoid

drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is a type of fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pip'' (UK), ''pit'' (US), ''stone'', or ''pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed ...

measuring long and containing a single seed.

Taxonomy

This species was first described by the Victorian state botanist

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Victoria, Australia ...

, based on material supplied to him from the Burdekin River by Eugene Fitzalan, and by Mr Henne who collected specimens from Sweers and Bentinck Islands in the Gulf of Carpentaria. It was published in Mueller's book '' Fragmenta phytographiæ Australiæ'' in 1862.

Subspecies

Three varieties are recognised: *''C. australianum'' var. ''australianum'' F.Muell. *''C. australianum'' var. ''glabrum'' Leenh. — styptic tree, ''jalgir'' (

Bardi language Bardi (also Baardi, Baard) is an endangered Australian Aboriginal language in the Nyulnyulan languages, Nyulnyulan family, mutually intelligible with Jawi dialect, Jawi and possibly other dialects. It is spoken by the Bardi people at the tip o ...

) — type specimen from

Bickerton Island Bickerton Island is 13 km west of Groote Eylandt and 8 km east of the mouth of Blue Mud Bay in eastern Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is about 21 by 21 kilometres in size, with deep bays and indentations, and ...

in the Gulf of Carpentaria *''C. australianum'' var. ''velutinum'' Hewson —''jalgir'' (Bardi language) — type specimen from Cape Domett, north of Kununurra, Western Australia

Distribution and habitat

The scrub turpentine is widely distributed across northern Australia from the

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...

region of Western Australia, through the Northern Territory to eastern Queensland, where it is found from the

Torres Strait Islands The Torres Strait Islands are an archipelago of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of , but their tot ...

southwards almost as far as Mackay. It also occurs in New Guinea. It inhabits rainforest, monsoon forest and open forests at altitudes from near sea level to about . All three varieties are found in Australia, while only the varieties ''C.a. australianum'' and ''C.a. glabrum'' occur in New Guinea.

Gallery

File:Canarium-australianum-SF22190-03.jpg, Seedling File:Canarium-australianum-SF24117-02.jpg, Young sapling File:Canarium-australianum-SF24117-05.jpg, Tree in Cairns Botanic Gardens File:Canarium-australianum-SF24117-06.jpg, Foliage File:Canarium-australianum-SF24117-09.jpg, Trunk

References

External links

Information about ''Canarium australianum''
from Townsville City Council's Natural Assets Database
View a map
of herbarium records of this species at the

Australasian Virtual Herbarium The ''Australasian Virtual Herbarium'' (AVH) is an online resource that allows access to plant specimen data held by various Australian and New Zealand herbaria. It is part of the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), and was formed by the amalgama ...

View observations
of this species on

iNaturalist iNaturalist is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit social network of naturalists, citizen scientists, and biologists built on the concept of mapping and sharing observations of biodiversity across the globe. iNaturalist may be accessed via its web ...

See images
of this species on Flickriver.com {{Taxonbar, from=Q5031157 australianum Sapindales of Australia Rosids of Western Australia Flora of the Northern Territory Flora of Queensland Flora of New Guinea Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller Plants described in 1862