Polyscias elegans
{{Short description|Species of tree}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Use Australian English|date=July 2011}}
{{Speciesbox
| image = Polyscias elegans Wyrrabalong National Park.JPG
| image_caption =Polyscias elegans at Wyrrabalong National Park, Australia
| genus = Polyscias
| species = elegans
| authority = (C.Moore & F.Muell.) HarmsHarms Nat. Pflanzenfam. 3(8): 45 1894{{APNI | name = Polyscias elegans (C.Moore & F.Muell.) Harms'| id =30737 | accessdate = 30 July 2013 }}
| synonyms =
- Panax elegans C.Moore & F.Muell.C. Moore & F. Muell. Trans. Philos. Inst. Victoria 2: 68 1858
- Tieghemopanax elegans (C. Moore & F. Muell.) R.Viguier.R. Vig. Bull. Soc. Bot. France 52: 308 1905
}}
File:Polyscias elegans Norah Head.jpg, Australia]]
File:Polyscias elegans00.jpg]]
Polyscias elegans, known as the celery wood, is a rainforest tree of eastern Australia. It occurs in a variety of different rainforest types, from fertile basaltic soils, to sand dunes and less fertile sedimentary soils. The range of natural distribution is from Jervis Bay (35° S) in southern New South Wales to Thursday Island (10° S), north of the Australian continent. Other common names include black pencil cedar and silver basswood. Polyscias elegans is useful to bush regenerators as a nursery tree, which provides shade for longer-lived young trees underneath. Polyscias elegans is also known as Celery wood, Mowbulan whitewood, Silver basswood and White sycamore.http://www.plantnames.unimelb.edu.au/Sorting/Polyscias.html Sorting Polyscias names
Description
It is a fast-growing medium-sized tree with an attractive palm-like or umbrella-shaped crown. Up to 30 meters tall and a trunk diameter of 75 cm. The trunk is mostly straight, unbuttressed and cylindrical, smooth-barked on young trees but fissured, scaly and rough-barked on larger trees.
Leaves are large, pinnate or bi-pinnate with almost opposite leaflets, often in threes. Leaflets ovate in shape, with a point, 5 to 13 cm long. Leaf veins noticeable on both sides, net veins visible below.
Purple flowers form on a terminal panicle, arranged in a series of racemes in the months of February to April. However, flowers can form at other times. The fruit is a drupe; brown or purplish black in colour, 5 to 7 mm wide. Inside the drupe are two cells, containing one seed each, 5 mm long. Seed is fertile for regeneration from the droppings of the pied currawong.
The fruit is eaten by a large variety of birds, including brown cuckoo dove, Australasian figbird, green catbird, Lewin's honeyeater, olive-backed oriole, pied currawong, paradise riflebird, rose crowned fruit dove, silvereye, superb fruit dove, topknot pigeon and wompoo fruit dove.
References
{{Reflist}}
- {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u9EsAQAAMAAJ&q=Rainforest+trees+of+mainland+south-eastern+Australia+inkata+press |title=Rainforest Trees of Mainland South-eastern Australia |first=A. G. |last=Floyd |author-link=Alexander Floyd |publisher=Elsevier Australia - Inkata Imprint, copyright Forestry Commission of New South Wales |location=Port Melbourne |publication-date=1989-12-01 |year=1989 |edition=1st |isbn=0-909605-57-2 |page=73 |access-date=2009-06-20}} [https://www.bookdepository.com/Rainforest-Trees-Mainland-South-Eastern-Australia-G-Floyd/9780909605575?ref=grid-view&qid=1597082346285&sr=1-64 (other publication details, included in citation)]
- [http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Polyscias~elegans Polyscias elegans at NSW Flora Online] Retrieved 20 June 2009
{{Taxonbar|from=Q7226926}}
Category:Flora of New South Wales
Category:Plants described in 1894