Whyanbeelia



Whyanbeelia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Picrodendraceae with only one species, Whyanbeeliaterrae-reginae that is endemic to a small area of Queensland. Whyanbeeliaterrae-reginae is a dioecious rainforest tree with narrowly egg-shaped leaves, flowers arranged in loose groups, and fruit a more or less spherical capsule.

Description
Whyanbeeliaterrae-reginae is a dioecious tree that typically grows to a height of up to 20 m, its young growth covered with soft hairs. The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, narrowly elliptic, 60–160 mm long and 25–60 mm wide on a petiole 4–9 mm long, and tapering to a long drip tip. The leaves sometimes smell like sarsaparilla when crushed. The flowers are arranged in upper leaf axils in groups 60 mm long, of all male flowers or male flowers interspersed with female flowers. Individual flowers are borne on a pedicel up to 9 mm long. Male flowers have sepals in two whorls of three, the outer sepals egg-shaped, 1.0–1.5 mm long and about 1 mm wide, the inner sepals round and about 2 mm in diameter. Male flowers have between 50 and 55 stamens. Female flowers have six tapering sepals that are similar to each other and 1–2 mm long. The ovary is oval, about 3 mm long and 2 mm wide and densely softly-hairs with three styles 3–4 mm long.

Taxonomy
The genus Whyanbeelia and the species Whyanbeelia terrae-reginae were first formally described in 1976 by Herbert Airy Shaw and Bernard Hyland in the Kew Bulletin, from specimens collected in the Whyanbeel Nature Reserve. The genus name(Whyanbeelia), is derived from th aboriginal name for the type location.

Distribution and habitat
This rainforest tree grows in rainforest between the Daintree and Johnstone Rivers at altitudes between 100 and 400 m, in north-eastern Queensland.