Cryptocarya hypospodia



Cryptocarya hypospodia, commonly known as northern laurel, white walnut, rib fruited pepperberry or north queensland purple laurel, is species of flowering plant in the laurel family and is native to northern Australia and New Guinea. It is a tree with elliptic to egg-shaped leaves, pale brown and creamy-green flowers, and spherical black drupes.

Description
Cryptocarya hypospodia is a tree that typically grows to a height of up to 30 m, its stems usually buttressed and soft hairs on its twigs. Its leaves are elliptic to egg-shaped, 65–245 mm long and 25–135 mm wide on a petiole 7–17 mm long. The flowers are arranged in panicles longer than the leaves and are pale brown, creamy-green, and pleasantly perfumed. The perianth tube is 1.0–1.8 mm long, 1.3–1.5 mm wide and hairy near the tip. The outer tepals are 1.4–1.9 mm long and 0.7–1.1 mm wide and the inner tepals are 1.4–1.9 mm long and 1.1–1.5 mm wide. The outer anthers are 0.6–0.8 mm long and 0.5–0.7 mm wide, the inner anthers 0.6–0.8 mm long and 0.4–0.6 mm wide. Flowering occurs from November to May, and the fruit is a spherical black drupe 13–18 mm long and 12–17 mm wide with creamy cotyledons.

Taxonomy
Cryptocarya hypospodia was first formally described in 1866 by Ferdinand von Mueller in his Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae from specimens collected near Rockingham Bay.

Distribution and habitat
Northern laurel grows in rainforest and gallery forest from Cape York Peninsula and south to north-east and central eastern Queensland, on Croker Island in the Northern Territory and in New Guinea.

Ecology
The fruit of C. hypospodia is eaten by cassowaries and fruit-eating birds, and is food for larval stages of butterflies.