Drypetes deplanchei
Drypetes australasica
. . .
Drypetes australasica
. . .
Wikipedia links: Angiosperms > Eudicots > Rosids > Malpighiales > Putranjivaceae > Drypetes deplanchei
Other links:
Common name: Yellow Tulip
Also grey boxwood, white myrtle, grey bark and yellow tulipwood
Conservation status: unknown
Etymology:
The genus is derived from the Greek, dryppa meaning "olive fruit"
The species named after Dr. Emile Deplanche, who collected this plant in New Caledonia
Flowers:
Yellow brown flowers form in November, from the forks of the leaves
Male and female flowers on separate trees
Individual flowers around 4 mm in diameter
Male flowers in axillary racemes with a perianth around 2 mm long, with 5 to 10 stamens
Female flowers solitary or in clusters of 3 or 4
Fruit:
The fruit is a bright red drupe. 12 to 20 mm long with moist yellow flesh inside
The single seed is about 12 mm long, oval in shape with a groove on one side
Fruit mature from February to April
Eaten by the emerald dove, topknot pigeon and wompoo fruit dove
Germination from seed is slow
Leaves:
Elliptical, ovate to ovate-oblong in shape, 4 to 9 cm long, 1 to 5 cm wide
Wavy edged, stiff, thick
Margins toothed, without teeth or with scalloped margins
Leaves abruptly tapered at the base, with a leaf tip or rounded at the end
Hairless and glossy green, somewhat paler green underneath
Leaf stems 3 to 6 mm long
Juvenile leaves prominently toothed
Leaf veins easily noticed, raised on both sides of the leaf
Five to seven lateral veins, at around 65 degrees to the midrib
Stem & branches:
The tree is often flanged at the butt and lower part of the trunk
Grey or brown bark, often with scales of bark which fall, leaving shallow depressions
This results in a mottled appearance, similar to the tulipwood
Bark scaly and pustular on older trees. Small branches smooth, slender, grey in colour
Dotted with many lenticels
Roots:
x
Habit:
A small to medium-sized tree, up to 25 metres tall and a stem width of 60 cm
Habitat:
x
Distribution:
A tree of eastern and northern Australia.
It also occurs in New Caledonia and Lord Howe Island
Occurring as far south as the Hunter River, NSW, north to Torres Strait across the Top End of the Northern Territory and The Kimberley in Western Australia
The subspecies affinis is endemic to Lord Howe Island
The habitat varies, but it is often found in monsoon forest, drier rainforest, as well as littoral rainforest, and rainforest by streams
Species:
World: S, G
Australia: S, G
Additional notes:
Uses
Previously used as bullock whip handles, in the Richmond River district, northern NSW
Indigenous Australians ate the fruit raw, and used leaves in cooking, as well as carving the wood
Early settlers on Lord Howe Island used the timber for sea piles because the sap repels marine worms
Ecology
A food source for a variety of insects
Such as the common albatross butterfly
Possibly also a food source for the critically endangered Lord Howe Island stick insect