''Cerbera inflata'', commonly known as the cassowary plum, grey milkwood, Joojooga, or rubber tree, is a plant in the family

Apocynaceae Apocynaceae (, from '' Apocynum'', Greek for "dog-away") is a family of flowering plants that includes trees, shrubs, herbs, stem succulents, and vines, commonly known as the dogbane family, because some taxa were used as dog poison. Notable mem ...

endemic to northeast

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, specifically the

Atherton Tablelands The Atherton Tableland is a fertile plateau, which is part of the Great Dividing Range in Queensland, Australia. It has very deep, rich basaltic soils and the main industry is agriculture. The principal river flowing across the plateau is the ...

and adjacent areas.

Description

The cassowary plum is a tree up to in height with a grey fissured trunk, and with no

buttress root Buttress roots, also known as plank roots or stilt roots, are large, wide roots on all sides of a shallowly rooted tree. Typically, they are found in nutrient-poor tropical forest soils that may not be very deep. They may prevent the tree from fa ...

s. Leaves are

glabrous Glabrousness () is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes, or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of a plant or animal, or be due to loss because of a physical condition, ...

(smooth), lanceolate, dull green above and paler below, and crowded towards the end of the twigs. They measure up to long and wide, with about 35 lateral veins. All parts of the tree produces a copious milky sap when cut. The

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

is a much branched cyme up to with usually more than 50 flowers. The flowers have 5 white

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 Etymology The term ''sepalum'' ...

s, a long

corolla tube Petals are modified leaves that form an inner whorl surrounding the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often brightly coloured or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''coroll ...

about in length by wide with 5 free lobes at the end. They are white with a cream or green centre, about in diameter, and have a sweet scent. Fruits are a bright blue-purple

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 about long by wide, bluntly rounded at the base (the end attached to the branch) and slightly pointed at the apex. They each contain a single large seed.

Taxonomy

This species was first described as ''Cerbera dilatata'' by the Australian botanist

Stanley Thatcher Blake Stanley Thatcher Blake (1910 – 24 February 1973) was an Australian botanist who served as president of the Royal Society of Queensland and who was associated with the Queensland Herbarium beginning in 1945 until his death. Background Prior to ...

, and published in 1948 in the ''

Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland ''Proceedings of The Royal Society of Queensland'' is a multidisciplinary scientific journal published by The Royal Society of Queensland The Royal Society of Queensland was formed in Queensland, Australia in 1884 from the Queensland Philos ...

''. That name was subsequently found to be a ''

nomen illegitimum ''Nomen illegitimum'' (Latin for illegitimate name) is a technical term used mainly in botany. It is usually abbreviated as ''nom. illeg.'' Although the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants uses Latin terms as qualif ...

'' as it had previously been applied to a plant from the Caroline and

Mariana Islands The Mariana Islands ( ; ), also simply the Marianas, are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, between the 12th and 21st pa ...

in 1927, (and is now a synonym of ''

Cerbera odollam ''Cerbera odollam'' is a tree species in the family Apocynaceae commonly known as the suicide tree or pong-pong. It bears a fruit known as othalanga whose seeds yield a potent poison called cerberin. It has historically been used in Trial by orde ...

''). Thus it was necessary that this species be renamed, and in 1959 botanist

Paul Irwin Forster Paul Irwin Forster (born 1961) is an Australian botanist. He obtained his doctorate from the University of Queensland in 2004 with his thesis ''The pursuit of plants : studies on the systematics, ecology and chemistry of the vascular flora of A ...

published a revision of the Australian members of the genus ''Cerbera'', in which he gave this plant its current combination. Any historical collections or observations from Australia that are labelled ''C. dilatata'' will be referring to the species ''C. inflata'', while those from outside Australia refer to ''C. odollam''.

Etymology

The

species epithet Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany) ...

derives from the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

''inflatus'', meaning 'inflated' and refers to the corolla tube.

Distribution and habitat

''Cerbera inflata'' is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to Queensland. It grows in well developed rainforest in the foothills and uplands from Innisfail to the

Atherton Tableland The Atherton Tableland is a fertile plateau, which is part of the Great Dividing Range in Queensland, Australia. It has very deep, rich basaltic soils and the main industry is agriculture. The principal river flowing across the plateau is the B ...

. The altitudinal range is from .

Ecology

Cassowaries eat the fallen fruit whole, and are the major dispersal agent for the species.

Gallery

File:Cerbera-inflata-SF23236-05.jpg, Foliage, inflorescence and trunks File:Cerbera inflata 165702217.jpg , Spirally arranged leaves File:Cerbera-inflata-SF23236-03.jpg, Inflorescence File:Cerbera inflata 525289534.jpg, Fruit File:Cerbera_inflata_238825531.jpg , Trunk

References

External links

View a map
of historical sightings 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 ...

View images
of this species on Flickriver {{Taxonbar, from=Q15397464 inflata Taxa named by Stanley Thatcher Blake Plants described in 1948 Endemic flora of Queensland Trees of Australia