Cryptocarya claudiana



Cryptocarya claudiana, commonly known as Claudie laurel, is a tree in the laurel family and is endemic to Cape York Peninsula in Queensland. Its leaves are oblong to elliptic, the flowers creamy-green, perfumed and tube-shaped, and the fruit an elliptic or spherical black drupe.

Description
Cryptocarya claudiana is a tree that typically grows to a height of 10 m, its stems not buttressed. Its leaves are oblong to elliptic, 85–160 mm long and 30–65 mm wide on a petiole 5–13 mm long. The flowers are arranged in panicles that are shorter than the leaves and are perfumed, the perianth 1.2–1.3 mm long an 1.3–1.5 mm wide and hairy inside. The tepals are 1.6–1.8 mm long and 1.2–1.4 mm wide, the outer anthers about 0.7 mm long and 0.5–0.6 mm wide, the inner anthers 0.7–0.8 mm long and about 0.5 mm wide. Flowering occurs in January, and the fruit is an elliptic or spherical black drupe 14–16 mm long and 11–13 mm wide.

Taxonomy
Cryptocarya claudiana was first formally described in 1989 by Bernard Hyland in Australian Systematic Botany from specimens collected near the Claudie River.

Distribution and habitat
This species of Cryptocarya grows in rainforest on soils derived from granite and metamorphic rocks at altitudes up to 500 m between the Claudie River and Rocky River, east of Coen on Cape York Peninsula.