Daphnandra johnsonii

Location & distribution maps

Plant  information

Common name:                Illawarra Socketwood  

• The term "socketwood" is from the related species Daphnandra apatela

• A feature of which is where larger branchlets meet the main trunk

• This joining resembles a "ball and socket" type joint

Conservation status:  Endangered

• Most of the 41 site] are under immediate threat from clearing for agriculture, urban expansion, feral animals, weeds, inappropriate use of fire and herbicide, quarrying, and road construction

• Only two small populations are conserved in the reserve system

• The biggest and healthiest populations are on private property

Etymology:   

• The generic name Daphnandra refers to a similarity of the anthers of the bay laurel

• Greek daphne refers to the bay laurel, and andros from the Greek for man

Flowers:                  

• Tiny flowers appear in spring, on long flower stems

• Flowers white with pinkish red margins

• They form on panicles or racemes, 3 to 8 cm long

• The sepals and petals are around 1 to 3 mm

Fruit:                         

• The fruiting capsule is woody and hairless, around 15 to 20 mm long

• Opening in two sections

• Mature seeds are feathery

• Healthy seeds germinate readily within a month of sowing

• Plants often don't produce fertile fruit in the wild and these fruit are shorter and rounder than the viable fruit

• These short fruit appear to be galled and contain no seed but contain many silky hairs or plumes that are normally attached to the seeds

• Some trees contain a mixture of both short, galled fruits and long fertile fruits, most trees seem to only produce galled fruits and trees that produce only fertile fruits are rare

• It also has a limited ability to colonise new areas

• Its main survival strategy is the ability to sucker and coppice

Leaves:         

• Leaves ovate or elliptic in shape, 6 to 12 cm long, 1.5 cm to 6 cm wide with a sharply angled tip

• Leaves are opposite on the stem, prominently toothed, 7 to 9 teeth on each side of the leaf

• The bottom third of the leaf is without leaf serrations

• The point of the leaf base to the first serration is almost a straight line

• The bottom of the leaf is glossy pale green, the top side is a dull dark green

• Leaf scars evident

• Leaf buds with soft hairs

• Leaf venation is more evident under the leaf

• Lateral veins not clear on the top surface

• Mid rib raised both sides of the leaf

• Six or seven pairs of lateral veins

• Leaf stems 2 to 7 mm long, and smooth

• Old leaves go pale and turn yellow on the stem

• Leaves similar to the related common sassafras (Doryphora sassafras)

  • There are one or two teeth per centimetre on the Illawarra socketwood

  • The mid rib is raised above and below on the Illawarra socketwood

  • Lateral veins of the common sassafras are at a less acute angle than the Illawarra socketwood

  • Illawarra socketwood lateral veins are sharply angled at around 40 degrees in relation to the mid rib of the leaf

  • The scent of the leaf is more faint and "soapy" on the Illawarra socketwood

  • Leaves of common sassafras are more aromatic, usually less coarsely toothed and the mid rib is sunken on the upper surface

  • Common Sassafras leaves thicker and heavier to touch.

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Stem & branches: 

• The trunk is beige in colour, cylindrical with little buttressing

• Sometimes seen with coppice leaves at the base

• The bark is fairly smooth with some raised pustules of a darker colour

• Branchlets are fairly thick with lenticels

• Wider and flatter at the nodes

Roots:         

Habit:        

• A small to medium-sized tree

• Growing to around 20 metres tall and a stem diameter of 30 cm, with a broad and shady crown

Habitat:   

• t is found most often at less than 150 metres above sea level on volcanic soils in sub tropical rainforest

• Occasionally it is found as high as 350 metres above sea level

• It grows often by creeks, or dry rocky scree slopes, and in disturbed forest and rainforest margins

Distribution:                  

•  In the Illawarra district of eastern Australia

• From southern Berry, NSW to Scarborough, NSW in the northern Illawarra (34° S)

Additional notes:     

• Naming and taxonomy

  • A member of the ancient Gondwana family Atherospermataceae, the Illawarra socketwood is endangered by extinction

  • Formerly considered the southernmost population of Daphnandra micrantha, the Australian socketwood

  • Recently it has been recognised as a separate species

  • The type specimen collected in the Illawarra district by L.A.S. Johnson, after whom the species was named, by Richard Schodde

Sources of information:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphnandra_johnsonii (Jan 2024)