Elaeocarpus holopetalus

Location & distribution maps

Phylogeny & links to associated information:

Wikipedia links:       Angiosperms > Eudicots > Rosids  > Oxalidales > Elaeocarpaceae > Elaeocarpus  holopetalus

Other links:     

Plant  information

Common name:                Black Olive Berry

• Also, mountain blueberry, or mountain quandong

Conservation status:  unknown

Etymology:   

Flowers:                  

• The flowers are pendent and arranged in racemes 10–50 mm long with up to seven flowers on softly-hairy, robust pedicels 15–25 mm long

• The flowers have five narrow triangular sepals about 16 mm and 4 mm wide, densely hairy on the back

• The five petals are white, sometimes flushed with pink, about 18 mm long and 6 mm wide, the tips sometimes with shallow lobes

• There are between fifteen and twenty stamens

• Flowering occurs in November and December 

Fruit:                         

• An oval, maroon drupe turning blackish and 6–8 mm long when mature

Leaves:        

• The leaves are lance-shaped to elliptic, or egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base

• Mostly 30–70 mm long and 10–30 mm wide on a petiole 3–10 mm long

• The leaves are mid to dark green above, paler below 

• The edges have regular teeth

Stem & branches: 

• The trunk is straight 

• Relatively smooth dark grey or brown outer bark with some fissures and wrinkles

• Young branchlets are densely covered with woolly-brownish or velvety hairs.

Roots:         

• x

Habit:        

• It is a shrub or small tree typically growing to a height of 5–16 m

• There are rare specimens up to 25 m tall and 2 m wide at the base

Habitat:   

• Grows in and near the edges of cooler rainforest at altitudes up to 1,500 m

Distribution:                  

• Endemic to eastern Australia

• From near Dorrigo, Ebor and Chaelundi National Park in northern NSW to East Gippsland in north-eastern Victoria

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy

  • Elaeocarpus holopetalus was first formally described in 1861 by Ferdinand von Mueller in Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae

Sources of information:

• (2023)