''Sloanea woollsii'', commonly known as yellow carabeen, carribin, grey carrobean, or eslanea amarela in Portuguese, is a large

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

with plank buttresses that is native to northeastern

NSW New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a state on the east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria to the south, and South Australia to the west. Its coast borders the Coral and Tasman Seas to the east. T ...

and 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 ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. Its southern distributional limit is near the town of

Bulahdelah Bulahdelah () is a town and locality in the Mid North Coast region of New South Wales, Australia in the Mid-Coast Council local government area. Geography The town is situated north of Sydney along the eastern and northern banks of the Myall ...

(32° S) at Tallowwood Forest Park and O'Sullivans Gap Reserve.

Description

The carabeen is a very large single-stem rainforest tree that can reach 55 m tall with a trunk diameter of 250 cm. Prominent plank buttresses protrude at the base with buttresses sometimes reaching as tall as 4 m. The crown is usually spreading and open. It typically requires between 1300 and 1700 mm of rainfall and a soil alkalinity of 5 to 6.5 pH.

Ecology and Distribution

''Sloanea woollsii'' is one of the common tree species in

subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones immediately to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Ge ...

rainforests Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

of Australia growing up to 55 metres tall. It is a typical long-lived (up to 800 years), slow growing and

shade tolerant In ecology, shade tolerance is a plant's ability to tolerate low light levels. The term is also used in horticulture and landscaping, although in this context its use is sometimes imprecise, especially in labeling of plants for sale in nursery (ho ...

climax Climax may refer to: Language arts * Climax (narrative), the point of highest tension in a narrative work * Climax (rhetoric), a figure of speech that lists items in order of importance Biology * Climax community, a biological community th ...

Taxonomy and Phylogeny

''S. woollsii'' is one of 184 species accepted by the

Catalogue of Life The Catalogue of Life (CoL) is an online database that provides an index of known species of animals, plants, fungi, and microorganisms. It was created in 2001 as a partnership between the global Species 2000 and the American Integrated Taxono ...

to be in the ''

Sloanea ''Sloanea'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Elaeocarpaceae, comprising about 150 species. Species include: * '' Sloanea acutiflora'' Uittien * '' Sloanea assamica'' Rehder & E. Wilson * '' Sloanea australis'' Benth. & F.Muell., a ...

'' genus. ''Sloanea'' is the second largest of the 12 genera within the ''

Elaeocarpaceae Elaeocarpaceae is a family of flowering plants. The family contains approximately 615 species of trees and shrubs in 12 genera."Elaeocarpaceae" In: Klaus Kubitzki (ed.). ''The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants'' vol. VI. Springer-Verlag: Ber ...

'' family (which also contains the blue marble tree, ''Elaeocarpus angustifolius'', the maqui or Chilean wineberry, ''Aristotelia chilensis'', and the Chilean lantern tree, ''Crinodendron hookerianum''). According to the

Open Tree of Life The Open Tree of Life is an online phylogenetic tree of life – a collaborative effort, funded by the National Science Foundation. The first draft, including 2.3 million species, was released in September 2015. The Interactive graph allows the u ...

project, which aggregates phylogenetic research, this species is likely an offshoot of a branch containing '' S. sogerensis'', '' S. australis'', and '' S. langii''. The following phylogenetic relationships are suggested:

References

woollsii Flora of New South Wales Flora of Queensland Oxalidales of Australia Trees of Australia Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller {{Australia-rosid-stub