Aphananthe philippinensis is a common rainforest tree in the Cannabaceae

Cannabaceae

Cannabaceae are a small family of flowering plants. As now circumscribed, the family includes about 170 species grouped in about 11 genera, including Cannabis , Humulus and Celtis...

 family. In 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...

 it occurs from the Manning River

Manning River

The Manning River is a river in the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia that flows through the Manning Valley. It is one of Australia's few large river systems not to be dammed for water supply purposes anywhere along its catchment...

  in New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

 to near Herberton

Herberton, Queensland

Herberton is a town on the Atherton Tableland in Far North Queensland, Australia. At the 2006 census, Herberton had a population of 974.-History:...

 in tropical Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

. It was first described from the island of Luzon

Luzon

Luzon is the largest island in the Philippines. It is located in the northernmost region of the archipelago, and is also the name for one of the three primary island groups in the country centered on the Island of Luzon...

 in the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

, hence the species name. The generic name of Aphananthe refers to insignificant flowers. This plant also occurs on the Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...

 and in Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...

The Australian habitat includes dry rainforest sites. However, it is mostly seen by streams on moist alluvial soils. Common names in Australia include Native Elm, Grey Handlewood, Axe handle Wood, Rough-leaved Hickory and Asbestos Tree.

Description

Growing to 35 metres tall and 85 cm in width, though usually seen as a smaller sized tree. The trunk is fluted and irregular in shape, buttressed at the base. The brown bark sheds irregularly; pustules and bumps give a patchy appearance. Branchlets are grey in colour with longitudinal cracks.

Leaves

Leaves are alternate on the stem, hard, dry to touch and sandpapery, though easily snapped off and brittle. Prominently toothed with a sharp prickly point. Lanceolate in shape, 4 to 6 cm long, 1.5 to 3 cm wide. Green both sides, paler below. Leaves veiny on both sides; midrib, lateral and net veins visible. Midrib depressed on the upper surface, raised underneath. Midrib pale in colour under the leaf.

Flowers and fruit

Male flowers form on small cymes. Female flowers on the same plant, being in singles or rarely two together, forming on a 5 mm long stalk. Male and female flowers around 5 mm long, in the months of September to November.

The fruit is an egg shaped black drupe

Drupe

In botany, a drupe is a fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a shell of hardened endocarp with a seed inside. These fruits develop from a single carpel, and mostly from flowers with superior ovaries...

, 6 mm long containing a single seed. The seed is 5 mm long, somewhat three angled. Fruit matures from February to June.

Ecology

Native Elm is a food tree for the Common Aeroplane and Rounded Six-line Blue butterflies. Fruit eaten by a variety of birds, including Australian King Parrot

Australian King Parrot

The Australian King Parrot is endemic to eastern Australia. It is found in humid and heavily forested upland regions of the eastern portion of the continent, including eucalyptus wooded areas in and directly adjacent to subtropical and temperate rainforest...

, Brown Cuckoo-dove

Brown Cuckoo-dove

The Slender-billed Cuckoo-Dove, or Brown Cuckoo-Dove, Macropygia amboinensis, is a dove in the genus Macropygia. In Australia, it is sometimes called "Brown Pigeon" or "Pheasant Pigeon", but both are best avoided, as they can lead to confusion with the brown doves and the true Pheasant Pigeon...

, Black-faced cuckoo-shrike

Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike

The Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike is a common omnivorous passerine bird native to Australia, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. It has a protected status in Australia, under the National Parks and Wildlife Act, 1974....

, Figbird

Australasian Figbird

The Australasian Figbird is a conspicuous medium-sized passerine bird native to a wide range of wooded habitats in northern and eastern Australia, southern Papua New Guinea, and the Kai Islands in Indonesia. It was formerly considered a subspecies of S...

, Green Catbird

Green Catbird

The Green Catbird, Ailuroedus crassirostris is a species of bowerbird found on subtropical forests along the east coast of Australia, from southeastern Queensland to southern New South Wales. Its colouring is emerald green, with faint black markings on the face and white streaks on the neck.Green...

, Lewin's Honeyeater

Lewin's Honeyeater

The Lewin's Honeyeater, Meliphaga lewinii, is a bird that inhabits the ranges along the east coast of Australia. It has a semicircular ear patch, pale yellow in colour.The name of this bird commemorates the Australian artist John Lewin....

, Olive-backed oriole

Olive-backed Oriole

The Olive-backed Oriole is a very common medium-sized passerine bird native to northern and eastern Australia and New Guinea. The most wide-ranging of the Australasian orioles, it is noisy and conspicuous. Not bright in colour, it is olive-backed with small dark streaks, with a light chest having...

, Pied Currawong

Pied Currawong

The Pied Currawong is a medium-sized black passerine bird native to eastern Australia and Lord Howe Island. One of three currawong species in the genus Strepera, it is closely related to the butcherbirds and Australian Magpie of the family Artamidae. Six subspecies are recognised...

, Rainbow Lorikeet

Rainbow Lorikeet

The Rainbow Lorikeet, is a species of Australasian parrot found in Australia, eastern Indonesia , Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. In Australia, it is common along the eastern seaboard, from Queensland to South Australia and northwest Tasmania...

, Satin Bowerbird

Satin Bowerbird

The Satin Bowerbird, Ptilonorhynchus violaceus is a bowerbird endemic to eastern Australia.A rare natural intergeneric hybrid between the Satin Bowerbird and the Regent Bowerbird is known as Rawnsley's Bowerbird.-Distribution:...

, Scaly-breasted Lorikeet

Scaly-breasted Lorikeet

The Scaly-breasted Lorikeet is an Australian lorikeet found in woodland in eastern Australia. The common name aptly describes this bird, which has yellow breast feathers broadly edged with green that look like scales....

 and Yellow-eyed Cuckoo-shrike

Yellow-eyed Cuckoo-shrike

The Barred Cuckooshrike , also called the Yellow-eyed Cuckooshrike, is a species of bird in the Campephagidae family.It is found in Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands....

.