''Floydia'' is a

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

genus of plants in the

Proteaceae The Proteaceae form a family (biology), family of flowering plants predominantly distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises 83 genus, genera with about 1,660 known species. Australia and South Africa have the greatest concentr ...

family

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 Australia. The sole described species is ''Floydia praealta'', commonly known as the ball nut. It is a somewhat rare tree found only growing in the rainforests of southeastern

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 ...

and northeastern

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. The tree has a superficial resemblance to the closely related ''

Macadamia ''Macadamia'' is a genus of four species of trees in the flowering plant family Proteaceae. They are indigenous to Australia—specifically, northeastern New South Wales and central and southeastern Queensland. Two species of the genus are comm ...

'' and could be confused with them. The fruit is poisonous.

Description

''Floydia praealta'' is a tree growing to tall with a trunk up to diameter. The leaves are mid-green, shiny,

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, ...

and stiff. They measure up to long by wide and are held on a petiole up to long. There are between 10 and 28 pairs of secondary veins and a densely reticulate tertiary venation which are all obvious on both surfaces. The inflorescence is a

raceme A raceme () or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate growth, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are ...

up to long carrying numerous cream flowers in pairs. The flowers have 4 hairy

tepal A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...

s and are up to long. The fruit is a globular, woody follicle around diameter.

Taxonomy

The species was formally described in 1862 by Victorian Government 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 plant material collected near the Clarence River in northern New South Wales and the

Brisbane River The Brisbane River (Turrbal language, Turrbal: ) is the longest river in South East Queensland, Australia. It flows through the city of Brisbane, before emptying into Moreton Bay on the Coral Sea. John Oxley, the first European to explore the ...

in Queensland. In his publication '' Fragmenta phytographiæ Australiæ'' Mueller named the plant ''Helicia praealta''. The species was transferred to the genus ''

'' in 1901 by Queensland Colonial Botanist Frederick Manson Bailey and then to ''Floydia'' in 1975 by Lawrie Johnson and Barbara Briggs.

Gallery

File:Floydia praealta 233900663.jpg, Foliage File:Floydiaprealtarbg1.JPG, Trunk File:Floydiaprealtarbg2.JPG, Foliage

References

External links

* *
View a map
of recorded 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 ...

See images
of this species on Flickriver
Botanical illustration (Australian National Botanic Gardens)
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q5462592, from2=Q18201409 Roupaleae Flora of New South Wales Flora of Queensland Proteales of Australia Vulnerable flora of Australia Monotypic Proteaceae genera Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller Taxa named by Barbara G. Briggs Taxa named by Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson Endemic flora of Australia