Glochidion ferdinandi
| Glochidion ferdinandi | |
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| Habit | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Rosids |
| Order: | Malpighiales |
| Family: | Phyllanthaceae |
| Genus: | Glochidion |
| Species: | G. ferdinandi |
| Binomial name | |
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Glochidion ferdinandi (Muell.Arg.) F.M.Bailey |
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| Synonyms | |
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Glochidion ferdinandi, with common names that include cheese tree (see below), is a species of small to medium–sized trees, constituting part of the plant family Phyllanthaceae. They grow naturally across eastern Australia, from south–eastern NSW northwards to northern and inland Qld, in rainforests and humid eucalypt forests. Frugivorous birds such as pigeons, figbirds and parrots consume its fruit.
It grows as a woody shrub or small tree to 8 metres (26 ft), although occasionally reaching 30 metres (98 ft), with flaky brownish-grey bark. It has simple alternate-arranged elliptical leaves 3–10 centimetres (1.2–3.9 in) in length and 1.5–4 centimetres (0.59–1.57 in) wide; the species may be partly deciduous in winter. Flowering may occur at any time of year; the cheese tree has both single female and male flowers, which are found in groups of three. Both sexes are green-yellow, with the male flowers about 0.7 cm and the female 0.5 cm in diameter. The most notable feature are the small pumpkin-shaped fruit, which are green at first before turning shades of white and pink. Divided into segments radially, they eventually split open to reveal bright red 0.5 cm seeds from November to April.
The cheese tree gains that name from its cheese-shaped fruit. Other common names include water gum, button wood, pencil cedar, and jow-war.
The species was originally described by Swiss botanist Johannes Müller Argoviensis in 1865 as Phyllanthus ferdinandi before being given its current binomial name by Frederick Manson Bailey in 1902. Its specific epithet honours Victorian State Botanist Ferdinand von Mueller. Note that the specific name is spelled with a single or double "i" by various sources.
An uncommon variety, pubens, known as the hairy cheese tree, is smaller, with leaves and fruit finely hairy.
The cheese tree grows in both clay and sandy soils, and is found in rainforest and wetter areas in sclerophyll forest, where it may be associated with such species as bangalay (Eucalyptus botryoides), woollybutt (E. longifolia), forest red gum (E. tereticornis) thin-leaved stringybark (E. eugenioides) and swamp she-oak (Casuarina glauca). The hairy cheese tree grows with magenta lilly pilly (Syzygium paniculatum), broad-leaved paperbark (Melaleuca quinquenervia), and Rhodomyrtus species.
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Wikipedia