''Polyscias murrayi'', known as the pencil cedar, is a very common rainforest tree of eastern
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
.
It occurs as a secondary regeneration species in disturbed rainforest areas, often on hillsides. The tree is identified by cylindrical trunk; abruptly forking into many branches, and supporting an impressive dark canopy.
Other common names include the umbrella tree, white basswood and pencilwood. The range of natural distribution is from the Howe Range, just over the border in the state of
Victoria (37° S),
up through
New South Wales and to
Atherton, Queensland (17° S). It also occurs in
New Guinea.
Description
This small to medium size tree grows to 25 metres tall with a trunk diameter of 50 cm. It is unbranched at the end of the main trunk, then breaks out into a many branched crown. The cylindrical trunk is mostly smooth, greyish or brown. The base of the tree is not flanged, fluted or buttressed.
Leaves are alternate and pinnate with 8 to 30 leaflets, opposite on the leaf stalk, entire or toothed, ovate lanceolate in shape, 8 to 15 cm long. However, leaves may be much larger on younger trees. Leaf stalks are up to 120 cm long and leaflet stalks 3 to 8 mm long. Between each pair of leaflets on the leaf stalk, a ''gland'' may be seen. The midrib is white or paler green, raised under the leaf. Leaf venation is more easily seen on the top of the leaf.
Creamy green flowers form on stalks on
umbels in the months of February to March. The fruit is a blue
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 (''kernel'') ...
, usually with two lobes, sometimes three. Fruit matures from April to June. Germination from fresh seed is slow.
The fruit is eaten by a variety of birds, including the
brown cuckoo dove,
Lewin's honeyeater,
rose crowned fruit dove,
satin bowerbird and
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.
...
.
Uses
''Polyscias murrayi'' is useful to bush regenerators as a nursery tree, which provides shade for longer lived young trees underneath. It is also an attractive ornamental tree.
References
;Notes
;Bibliography
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(other publication details, included in citation)*
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{{Taxonbar, from=Q3061150
murrayi
Apiales of Australia
Trees of Australia
Flora of New South Wales
Flora of Queensland
Flora of Victoria (Australia)
Ornamental trees
Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller