Elaeocarpus obovatus



Elaeocarpus obovatus, commonly known as hard quandong, blueberry ash, whitewood, grey carabeen, freckled oliveberry or gray carrobeen, is a species of flowering plant in the family Elaeocarpaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a tree with buttress roots at the base of the trunk, egg-shaped to lance-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base, racemes of white flowers, and blue, oval fruit.

Description
Elaeocarpus obovatus is sometimes a small tree 3–10 m tall, and sometimes a tall tree growing to a height of 45 m with buttress roots at the base of a trunk that is up to 150 cm in diameter. The outer bark is smooth, grey and thin with corky irregularities. The leaves are arranged alternately, egg-shaped to lance-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, 40–85 mm long and 14–22 mm wide on a petiole 2–6 mm long. The edges of the leaves are wavy, scalloped or toothed and the midrib is raised on the upper and lower surfaces. The flowers are arranged in racemes of ten to twenty 40–80 mm long, each on a pedicel 4–5 mm long with four or five egg-shaped to triangular sepals 2–3 mm long and 1–1.5 mm wide. The petals are white, egg-shaped to oblong and about the same size as the sepals with the tip divided into eight to ten lobes and there are about twenty very short stamens. Flowering occurs from late August to October and the fruit is a oval to elliptical blue drupe about 10 mm long and 8 mm wide, containing a single seed. Fruiting occurs in January to April.

Taxonomy
Elaeocarpus obovatus was first formally described in 1831 by George Don in his book A General History of Dichlamydeous Plants.

Distribution and habitat
Hard quandong is a tall tree in subtropical rainforest and a small to medium-sized tree in drier rainforest and occurs from Proserpine, Queensland (20° S) in to central-eastern Queensland south as far as Wyong (33° S) in New South Wales.