Acronychia laevis is a rainforest

Rainforest

Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...

 plant in the citrus

Rutaceae

Rutaceae, commonly known as the rue or citrus family, is a family of flowering plants, usually placed in the order Sapindales.Species of the family generally have flowers that divide into four or five parts, usually with strong scents...

 family, growing in eastern Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. The common name is the Hard Aspen. The habitat is dry rainforest, up to 700 metres above sea level. It grows from the upper Clarence River, New South Wales to Cape York Peninsula

Cape York Peninsula

Cape York Peninsula is a large remote peninsula located in Far North Queensland at the tip of the state of Queensland, Australia, the largest unspoilt wilderness in northern Australia and one of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth...

 at the northern most tip of Australia. It is also found on New Caledonia

New Caledonia

New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...

 and Lord Howe Island

Lord Howe Island

Lord Howe Island is an irregularly crescent-shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, directly east of mainland Port Macquarie, and about from Norfolk Island. The island is about 11 km long and between 2.8 km and 0.6 km wide with an area of...

. The true aspen

Aspen

Populus section Populus, of the Populus genus, includes the aspen trees and the white poplar Populus alba. The five typical aspens are all native to cold regions with cool summers, in the north of the Northern Hemisphere, extending south at high altitudes in the mountains. The White Poplar, by...

s of the northern hemisphere belong to the genus Populus in the family Salicaceae

Salicaceae

Salicaceae are a family of flowering plants. Recent genetic studies summarized by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group has greatly expanded the circumscription of the family to contain 55 genera....

.

Taxonomy

Acronychia laevis was first described by German naturalists Johann Reinhold Forster

Johann Reinhold Forster

Johann Reinhold Forster was a German Lutheran pastor and naturalist of partial Scottish descent who made contributions to the early ornithology of Europe and North America...

 and Georg Forster

Georg Forster

Johann Georg Adam Forster was a German naturalist, ethnologist, travel writer, journalist, and revolutionary. At an early age, he accompanied his father on several scientific expeditions, including James Cook's second voyage to the Pacific...

 in 1775. The specific epithet laevis is the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 adjective "smooth", and refers to the new shoots and leaves. It is a member of the Rutaceae

Rutaceae

Rutaceae, commonly known as the rue or citrus family, is a family of flowering plants, usually placed in the order Sapindales.Species of the family generally have flowers that divide into four or five parts, usually with strong scents...

 family.

Description

It grows as a bush or small tree up to 6 metres in height. It features attractive leaves, flowers, and pink fruit. The cylindrical trunk has fawn, fairly smooth bark. With some vertical lines and wrinkles. Small branches show leaf scars. Leaves are opposite on the stem, with only one leaflet. Leaf edges without serrations. Round, ovate, or obovate. Often blunt or rounded at the tip. 2.5 to 9.5 cm long, 1 to 5 cm wide.
Shiny on both sides. Oil dots may be seen under a lens with a bright light. The white or cream flowers appear on cymes from November to February. (Or as late as July). The fruit is a dark pink drupe, 6 to 8 mm wide. Inside are reddish brown seeds, 4 mm long. Fruit matures from June to October. Germination is likely if the seeds are liberated from the pink fruit, then soaked.

Cultivation

Acronychia laevis can be grown in a sunny or part-shaded position in a garden. Its attractive fruit and flowers have horticultural appeal. It can be propagated from seed, although cuttings may also be attempted. The fruit is edible to humans, although described as too pungent to be palatable, and have even been likened to turpentine

Turpentine

Turpentine is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin obtained from trees, mainly pine trees. It is composed of terpenes, mainly the monoterpenes alpha-pinene and beta-pinene...

.