''Cleistanthus apodus'', commonly known as the weeping Cleistanthus, is a tree in the family

Phyllanthaceae Phyllanthaceae is a Family (biology), family of flowering plants in the eudicot Order (biology), order Malpighiales. It is most closely related to the family Picrodendraceae.Kenneth J. Wurdack and Charles C. Davis. 2009. "Malpighiales phylogeneti ...

native to

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

and 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 ...

. It was first described in 1873 by the English botanist

George Bentham George Bentham (22 September 1800 – 10 September 1884) was an English botanist, described by the weed botanist Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century". Born into a distinguished family, he initially studie ...

in his seven-volume book

Flora Australiensis ''Flora Australiensis: a description of the plants of the Australian Territory'', more commonly referred to as ''Flora Australiensis'', and also known by its standard abbreviation ''Fl. Austral.'', is a seven-volume Flora of Australia published b ...

Description

''Cleistanthus apodus'' is a shrub or small tree growing up to about tall with a trunk usually less than diameter. The thin leaves are

simple Simple or SIMPLE may refer to: *Simplicity, the state or quality of being simple Arts and entertainment * ''Simple'' (album), by Andy Yorke, 2008, and its title track * "Simple" (Florida Georgia Line song), 2018 * "Simple", a song by John ...

and arranged alternately on the twigs, on petioles (stems) about long.

Stipule In botany, a stipule is an outgrowth typically borne on both sides (sometimes on just one side) of the base of a leafstalk (the petiole (botany), petiole). They are primarily found among dicots and rare among monocots. Stipules are considered part ...

s are minute, less than long, and the leaves are dark green and somewhat glossy above, slightly lighter green and dull below. They are

ovate Ovate may refer to: * Ovate (egg-shaped) leaves, tepals, or other botanical parts *Ovate, a type of prehistoric stone hand axe * Ovates, one of three ranks of membership in the Welsh Gorsedd * Vates or ovate, a term for ancient Celtic bards ...

lanceolate The following terms are used to describe leaf plant morphology, morphology in the description and taxonomy (biology), taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is, the leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade ...

in shape, and measure up to long by wide. 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 spike or fascicle produced in the leaf axils carrying very small 5-petaled flowers about diameter. The fruit is a green to brown stemless capsule up to long and diameter. It has 3 segments and contains about 6 seeds.

Phenology

This species has been observed flowering between August and October, and fruiting from September to February.

Taxonomy

This species was first described by the English botanist

in volume VI of his work ''Flora Australiensis''. The description was based on material collected at

Rockingham Bay Rockingham Bay is a bay in Far North Queensland, Australia. The bay opens onto the Coral Sea, part of the South Pacific Ocean. Adjacent to the bay is the Girramay National Park, south of which is the town of Cardwell. Goold Island is a small ...

and

Cape York Peninsula The Cape York Peninsula is a peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth's last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupación Sierra Madre, ...

John Dallachy John Dallachy (c. 1808 – 4 June 1871) was a curator of Melbourne Botanic Gardens and a plant collector. Dallachy was born in Elginshire, Scotland. He worked as a gardener for the Earl of Aberdeen and Kew Gardens. In 1847, he went to Ceylon t ...

and others. In 1891 the German botanist

Otto Kuntze Carl Ernst Otto Kuntze (23 June 1843 – 27 January 1907) was a German botanist. Biography Otto Kuntze was born in Leipzig. An apothecary in his early career, he published an essay entitled ''Pocket Fauna of Leipzig''. Between 1863 and 1866, he ...

published a description of this species with a new combination, i.e. ''Kaluhaburunghos apodus'' , however his name was not accepted and the original combination given by Bentham remains in place.

Taxonomic history

At the time of Bentham's publication describing this species, ''Cleistanthus'' was included in the family

Euphorbiaceae Euphorbiaceae (), the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of Euphorbia, the type genus of the family. Most spurges, such as ''Euphorbia paralias'', ar ...

, subfamily Phyllanthoideae. However in the release of the

APG II system The APG II system (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II system) of plant classification is the second, now obsolete, version of a modern, mostly Molecular phylogenetics, molecular-based, list of systems of plant taxonomy, system of plant taxonomy that ...

in 2003, Phyllanthoideae was removed from Euphorbiaceae and promoted to family status as

Etymology

The

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

name ''Cleistanthus'' is derived from the Ancient Greek words ''kleistós'' (closed), and ''ánthos'' (flower), and refers to the petals being enclosed by the calyx in some species. 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) ...

''apodus'' means sessile or stalkless.

Distribution and habitat

This species occurs in northeast Queensland and New Guinea. In Queensland the natural range is 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 ...

south through

to the area near Ingham. There is also a single confirmed collection a little way south of

Home Hill Home Hill is a rural town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Shire of Burdekin, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Home Hill had a population of 2,876 people. At the delta of the Burdekin River, it is a sugarc ...

, approximately to the southeast of Ingham. It grows in well developed

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

and semi-deciduous vine forest on a variety of soil types, particularly on the margins of rivers and streams.

Conservation

The weeping Cleistanthus has been assessed by both the Queensland Government's Department of Environment and Science and the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

(IUCN) as

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

Gallery

File:Cleistanthus-apodus-ALA-1.jpg, X-ray of lef File:Cleistanthus-apodus-SF22351-01.jpg, Foliage and maturing fruit File:Cleistanthus-apodus-SF22351-04.jpg, Foliage File:Cleistanthus-apodus-SF22351-05.jpg, Underside of leaves

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=Q15512873

apodus ''Apodus'' is a genus of fungi that was originally placed within the Lasiosphaeriaceae family. In 2020 it was placed within the Neoschizotheciaceae family. Species As accepted by Species Fungorum; *'' Apodus deciduus'' *'' Apodus oryzae'' Re ...

Endemic flora of Queensland Taxa named by George Bentham Plants described in 1873