Cenarrhenes nitida

Location & distribution maps

Phylogeny & links to associated information:

Wikipedia links:      Angiosperms > Eudicots > Proteales > Proteaceae > Proteoideae > Cenarrhenes  nitida

Other links:     

Plant  information

Common name:                Port Arthur plum 

• Also, native plum

  Conservation status:  ...

Etymology:   

• The genus name is derived from the Ancient Greek words kenos "empty" and arrhen "male", referring to the four staminode-like hypogynous glands

• Its name, the Latin adjective nitida, means "bright/shining", referring to its glossy leaves

Flowers:                  

• The flowers are produced in early summer from November to December and are small, symmetrical, and unscented

• Each flower has four, pointed, fleshy petals which curl backward when open

• Closed flowers have pink tips but turn all white when open

• The flowers are stalkless and arranged on woody spikes which are shorter than the leaves

• The flowers are insect pollinated and have four, thick, cream-yellow stamens

• The pollination is spring-loaded and is triggered by a touch sensitive hair on one of the four anthers

• Often, only 1 to 3 flowers per stalk will develop into mature fruit with the remainder forming stunted woody balls

Fruit:                         

• The fruit are a fleshy drupes which closely resemble commercial plums from the genus Prunus

• The fruit are roughly 1.5 cm (0.59 in) in size, but can get up to 3 cm 

• They have a smooth, deep purple skin, edible but chalky tasting pink-white flesh and a large stone at the center

• Much like plums, the fruit have a groove running down one side of the fruit and a fine dusty layer on the skin giving it a bluish colour which is easily removed by rubbing

• Fruit ripen in autumn from March to May

Leaves:         

• Its leaves, which are roughly 8 to 12 cm long, are thick, dull and hairless with a cleanly serrated edge and rounded tip

• These are attached to the stem via a short stalk

• The leaves are spread along the branches and have a nauseating stale-cabbage smell when crushed which helps distinguish it from Anopterus glandulosus (Escalloniaceae) which looks similar but lacks the smell and the leaves are often longer and arranged in false whorls

• The leaves turn black when dried

Stem & branches: 

Roots:         

Habit:        

• An evergreen shrub to small tree 

• Ranging in height from 10 m in sheltered sites (such as rainforests) to 2 m in exposed sites

Habitat:   

• Rainforests and scrublands

• Grows to an altitude of 800 m, the margins of the alpine zone

• It occurs most often as an understory tree to small shrub in wet sclerophyll forests and rainforest with poor soils 

• Occasionally in heath, button grass sedgeland and scrub

Distribution:                  

• Endemic to southern and western Tasmania and some of its islands

•  Offshore populations occur inland on South Bruny Island and in forested areas of the De Witt Islands which closely resemble environments on mainland Tasmania

Species:                     

• Amonytypic genus in the family Proteaceae containing the single species Cenarrhenes nitida

• Additional notes:    

• Taxonomy 

  • The French naturalist and explorer Jacques Labillardière described Cenarrhenes nitida in 1805, from a location described as in capite Van Diemen (Tasmania); it still bears its common name today

  • The genus only bears the one species

  • Although it resembles the persoonias in appearance, it does not appear to be related to them

  • Instead, it has been grouped with the Australian genera Agastachys, Symphionema and New Caledonian genera Beauprea and Beaupreopsis in the subtribe Cenarrheninae by Johnston and Briggs in 1975

  • It remained in its own subtribe in the publication of Flora of Australia in 1995, within the tribe Conospermeae and subfamily Proteoideae

  • In 1998 Sara Hoot and Andrew Douglas analysed chloroplast sequences and found that Cenarrhenes was sister to a clade comprising the three genera Stirlingia, Conospermum and Synaphea

  • Peter H. Weston and Nigel Barker reviewed the suprageneric relationships of the Proteaceae in 2006, using molecular and morphological data

  • In this scheme Cenarrhenes is located within the subfamily Proteoideae on account of it having cluster roots, a solitary ovule and indehiscent fruits

  • In a phylogenetic study including all the Proteaceae genera, it was found that it was most closely related to the genera Beaupreopsis (New Caledonia) and Dilobeia (Madagascar)

• Cultivation

  • Cenarrhenes nitida is a slow growing plant which requires a cool, moist, shady site with well composted soils and preferably good drainage

  • The seeds mature after the flesh has been removed and the stone allowed to dry

  • The seeds can be stored this way so long as they are kept in a well ventilated place

  • Germination is triggered by temperatures of roughly 20 °C after at least two months of cold stratification

  • Cenarrhenes nitida is often difficult to propagate and can be very slow growing if conditions are not right

  • They are best grown from seed as cuttings will remain green for considerable lengths of time without developing roots before turning brown

Sources of information:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cenarrhenes (2023)