''Beilschmiedia elliptica'', known as the grey walnut is a rainforest laurel growing in eastern Australia. The range of natural distribution is from

Forster, New South Wales Forster is a coastal town in the Mid North Coast, New South Wales, Mid North Coast region of New South Wales, on country of the Worimi, Worimi People, Australia, in the Mid-Coast Council Local government in Australia, LGA, about 308 km nort ...

(32° S) to

Fraser Island K'gari ( , ), also known by its former name Fraser Island, is a World Heritage-listed sand island along the south-eastern coast in the Wide Bay–Burnett region of Queensland, Australia. The island lies approximately north of the state capi ...

(25° S) in 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 ...

. ''Beilschmiedia elliptica'' grows in warm temperate and subtropical rainforests. Not a rare species, but seldom identified in the rainforest.

Description

A medium to large tree reaching to 30 metres tall and 90 cm in trunk diameter. The cylindrical trunk is reddish brown or grey, with raised dots and depressions in the bark. The tree's base is somewhat buttressed or flanged. The shoots and stems are hairy. The elliptic shaped leaves are alternate and not toothed, 8 to 10 cm long and 2 to 3 cm wide. Leaf venation is prominent on both sides, with a raised midrib and prominent intramarginal vein. Cream flowers form in

panicles 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 ...

from August to October. The fruit is a black round

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 ...

with a

glaucous ''Glaucous'' (, ) is used to describe the pale grey or bluish-green appearance of the surfaces of some plants, as well as in the names of birds, such as the glaucous gull (''Larus hyperboreus''), glaucous-winged gull (''Larus glaucescens''), ...

bloom, 12 mm long with a single seed inside. The fruit is ripe from February to April. As with most Australian laurels, removal of the fleshy

aril An aril (), also called arillus, is a specialized outgrowth from a seed that partly or completely covers the seed. An arillode, or false aril, is sometimes distinguished: whereas an aril grows from the attachment point of the seed to the ova ...

is advised to assist seed germination, which is slow but fairly reliable with ''Beilschmiedia elliptica''. The fruit is eaten by a variety of birds, including

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 fruit dove that is found in parts of southern Indonesia, northern Australia and eastern Australia. Taxonomy Th ...

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 t ...

and white-headed pigeon.

References

* Floyd, A.G., ''Rainforest Trees of Mainland South-eastern Australia'', Inkata Press 1989, * {{Taxonbar, from=Q4881250 Flora of New South Wales Flora of Queensland Laurales of Australia elliptica Trees of Australia