''Pendressia wardellii'' is a species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

in the family

Monimiaceae The Monimiaceae is a family (biology), family of flowering plants in the magnoliid Order (biology), order Laurales.Peter F. Stevens (2001 onwards). "Monimiaceae" At: Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. At: Botanical Databases At: Missouri Botanical Gar ...

, and is the sole species in the genus ''Pendressia''. It is a tall shrub to small tree

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 north-eastern

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 has egg-shaped to elliptic leaves, male flowers and female flowers on separate plants, male flowers with 10 to 15

stamen The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament ...

s and female flowers with 8 to 10

carpels Gynoecium (; ; : gynoecia) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower; it consists of (one or more) ...

, and red

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 ...

Description

''Pendressia wardellii'' is a tall shrub or small tree that typically grows to a height of . Its leaves are egg-shaped to elliptic, long and wide on a red

petiole Petiole may refer to: *Petiole (botany), the stalk of a leaf, attaching the blade to the stem *Petiole (insect anatomy) In entomology, petiole is the technical term for the narrow waist of some hymenopteran insects, especially ants, bees, and ...

long. The midvein is prominent on both surfaces of the leaves. Male and female flowers are borne on separate plants. Male flowers are borne in large, highly branched clusters long, each flower more or less spherical to club-shaped, about in diameter with 2 pairs of

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 usually 10–15 stamens. Female flowers are borne in small clusters long, each flower more or less spherical with 8 to 10 carpels. Flowering occurs from September to December, and the fruit is a red, more or less spherical drupe, long and wide.

Taxonomy

This species was first formally described in 1866 by

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 ...

who gave it the name ''Mollinedia wardellii'' in his ''

Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae ''Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae'' is a series of papers written by the Victorian Government botanist Ferdinand von Mueller in which he published many of his approximately 2000 descriptions of new taxa of Australian plants. Including the p ...

'' from specimens collected near

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 ...

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 ...

. In 1898,

Janet Russell Perkins Janet Russell Perkins (March 20, 1853 – 1933) was an American-born botanist. Perkins authored 191 land plant species names, the tenth highest number of such names authored by any female scientist. Born in Lafayette, Indiana, Janet was the daug ...

transferred the species to '' Wilkiea'' as ''W. wardellii'' and in 2018 Trevor Paul Whiffin placed it in the new

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 ''Pendressia'' as ''P. wardellii''. The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

(''wardellii'') honours von Mueller's friend,

William Wardell William Wilkinson Wardell (1823–1899) was a noted architect who practiced in the second half of the 19th century, and is best known for a series of landmark buildings in Australia in Melbourne and Sydney. Following a successful career in ...

Distribution and habitat

''Pendressia wardellii'' grows in rainforest at altitudes between on the Windsor, Mount Carbine and northern

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 ...

in north-east Queensland.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q94440659, from2=Q95987710 Monimiaceae genera Monotypic Laurales genera Endemic flora of Queensland Plants described in 1866 Monimiaceae Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller