''Endiandra discolor'' is an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal ...

tree, growing from near

Gosford, New South Wales Gosford is the city and administrative centre of the Central Coast Council (New South Wales), Central Coast Council local government area in the heart of the Central Coast (New South Wales), Central Coast region, about north of Sydney central ...

(33° S) to

Tully, Queensland Tully is a town and locality in the Cassowary Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. It is adjacent to the Bruce Highway, approximately south of Cairns by road and north of Townsville. At the , the population was 2,390. Tully is perhaps best k ...

(17° S) in the tropics. Common names include rose walnut and domatia tree. ''Endiandra discolor'' is a buttressed rainforest tree. The habitat is tropical, warm temperate or subtropical

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfo ...

, particularly on the poorer volcanic soil types, and alluvial soil near streams.

Description

''Endiandra discolor'' is a medium to large size tree, occasionally reaching 40 metres in height and 90 cm in trunk diameter. The base of the tree is significantly buttressed, up to 2 metres high on larger trees. The bark is brown or brownish grey, smooth on younger trees. The bark of older trees is rougher, with small depressions in the bark which are sometimes inhabited by insects. New branchlets covered with soft downy hairs.

Leaves

The leaves are alternate, not toothed. 6 to 10 cm long, 2 to 5 cm wide. Blunt or bluntly pointed at the end of the leaf. Ovate to ovate elliptic in shape. Leaf stem 5 to 10 mm long. Leaves glossy on the top surface, greyish or paler underneath. The specific name ''discolor'' refers to the difference in colour of the top and bottom leaf surfaces. Leaves veiny. The midrib, lateral veins and net veins visible on both surfaces, raised and more evident under the leaf. Midrib and lateral veins a pale green colour. The alternative common name domatia tree refers to the prominent raised, ''kidney shaped'' glands on the underside of the leaf. They occur at the meeting of the mid-rib and some of the lateral veins.

Flowers and fruit

Creamy green flowers occur on

panicle A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is ...

s in the months of October and November. Flowers are tiny, 2 mm long and sweetly scented. The panicles are shorter than the leaves. The fruit matures from March to April, being a shiny black

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

, 20 to 25 mm long. The flesh is green, surrounding an oval shaped seed, 15 to 20 mm long. Like many Australian laurels, the seed is slightly ribbed. The flesh should be removed from the fruit before sowing the seeds.

Ecology

Fruit are eaten by many rainforest birds, including the

wompoo fruit dove The wompoo fruit dove (''Ptilinopus magnificus''), also known as wompoo pigeon, is one of the larger fruit doves native to New Guinea and eastern Australia. Taxonomy and systematics Subspecies There are generally 7-8 recognised subspecies, ...

catbird Several unrelated groups of songbirds are called catbirds because of their wailing calls, which resemble a cat's meowing. The genus name ''Ailuroedus'' likewise is from the Greek for "cat-singer" or "cat-voiced". Australasian catbirds are the ...

rose crowned fruit dove The rose-crowned fruit dove (''Ptilinopus regina''), also known as pink-capped fruit dove or Swainson's fruit dove, is a medium-sized, up to 22 cm long, green fruit dove with a grey head and breast, an orange belly, whitish throat, yellow-or ...

superb fruit-dove The superb fruit dove (''Ptilinopus superbus''), also known as the purple-crowned fruit dove (leading to easy confusion with the purple-capped fruit dove), is a medium-sized (22–24 cm long), colourful fruit-dove in the family Columbidae. ...

and

topknot pigeon The topknot pigeon (''Lopholaimus antarcticus'') is a pigeon native to eastern Australia. Taxonomy English naturalist George Shaw described the topknot pigeon as ''Columba antarctica'' in 1793. The topknot pigeon is sister taxon to a lineage ...

. The leaves of ''Endiandra discolor'' provide food for the larvae of the

Macleay's swallowtail ''Graphium macleayanus'', the Macleay's swallowtail, is a butterfly belonging to the family Papilionidae. The species was named after Alexander Macleay. Taxonomy Macleay's swallowtail was first described by William Elford Leach in 1814. Two s ...

butterfly. ''Endiandra discolor'' is a larval host for the fruit fly, ''

Bactrocera endiandrae ''Bactrocera'' is a large genus of tephritid fruit flies, with close to 500 species currently described and accepted. Name The genus name is derived from Ancient Greek ''bakter'' "rod" and ''kera'' "horn". Systematics Prior to the 1990s, almos ...

''.http://www.agric.nsw.gov.au/Hort/ascu/fruitfly/endiandr.htm

References

*
(other publication details, included in citation)
* PlantNET - The Plant Information Network System of Botanic Gardens Trust, Sydney, Australia - retrieved 23 August 2009. http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Endiandra~discolor {{Taxonbar, from=Q5376109 discolor Laurales of Australia Trees of Australia Flora of New South Wales Flora of Queensland