Trochocarpa montana



Trochocarpa montana, commonly known as mountain tree-heath, is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae and is endemic to high altitude places in New South Wales. It is a much-branched shrub with narrowly egg-shaped, narrowly elliptical to broadly egg-shaped leaves, racemes of creamy-brown, tube-shaped flowers, and purple to black drupes.

Description
Trochocarpa montana is a much-branched shrub that typically grows to a height of 2–10 m and has fawn to grey branchlets. Its leaves are arranged alternately along the stems, narrowly egg-shaped, narrowly elliptical to broadly egg-shaped, 10.5–50 mm long and 4–26 mm wide on a petiole 1.5–4.5 mm long. The leaves are glossy green on the upper surface and paler below, with 5 to 7 veins visible, especially on the lower surface. The flowers are arranged in racemes on the ends of branches and in leaf axils, each flower on a pedicel 0.2–0.5 mm long with bracts and bracteoles 1.1–1.6 mm long and 1.0–1.1 mm wide. The sepals are egg-shaped to elliptic, 1.2–2.0 mm long and 0.6–1.1 mm wide. The petals are creamy-brown, 2.8–3.5 mm long and joined at the base to form a tube 1.6–2.1 mm long with lobes 1.2–1.6 mm long.

Taxonomy
Trochocarpa montana was first formally described in 2007 by John Beaumont Williams and John T. Hunter in the journal Telopea, from specimens collected in the Cathedral Rock National Park in 1995. The specific epithet (montana) refers to the occurrence of all populations at high elevations.

Distribution and habitat
Mountain tree-heath mostly occurs in and on the margins of rainforest with Antarctic Beech or Sassafras or in wet forests dominated by Eucalyptus obliqua.