Cryptocarya erythroxylon



Cryptocarya erythroxylon commonly known as rose maple, rose walnut, pigeonberry ash, red-wooded cryptocarya, southern maple or bottleberry, is a species of flowering plant in the laurel family and is endemic to eastern Australia. Its leaves are elliptic to lance-shaped the flowers cream-coloured and tube-shaped, and the fruit a pear-shaped black drupe.

Description
Cryptocarya erythroxylon is a tree that typically grows to a height of up to 30 m, its stem usually buttressed. Its leaves are elliptic to lance-shaped, 65–145 mm long and 15–60 mm wide on a petiole 8–19 mm long. The lower surface of the leaves is glaucous. The flowers are cream-coloured and arranged in panicles shorter than the leaves. The perianth tube is about 0.9 mm long and 1.5 mm wide, the outer tepals 1.2 mm long and 0.8 mm wide, the inner tepals 1.4 mm long and 1 mm wide. Flowering occurs in November, and the fruit is a pear-shaped black drupe, 19.5–21 mm long and 13–15 mm wide.

Taxonomy
Cryptocarya erythroxylon was first formally described in 1907 by Joseph Maiden in The Forest Flora of New South Wales, from an unpublished description by Maiden and Ernst Betche of a tree discovered by William Dunn in the "Macpherson Range".

Distribution and habitat
Rose maple grows in subtropical rainforest in coastal ranges at altitudes at 500-1050 m between Gympie in Queensland and Barrington Tops in New South Wales.