Cryptocarya microneura is a rainforest

Rainforest

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

 tree growing at the eastern coastal parts of 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...

.

Habitat

Common in most warm temperate rainforest areas on the poorer sedimentary soils, but also in the littoral

Littoral

The littoral zone is that part of a sea, lake or river that is close to the shore. In coastal environments the littoral zone extends from the high water mark, which is rarely inundated, to shoreline areas that are permanently submerged. It always includes this intertidal zone and is often used to...

 rainforests. It grows from near Batemans Bay in the southern Illawarra

Illawarra

Illawarra is a region in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is a coastal region situated immediately south of Sydney and north of the Shoalhaven or South Coast region. It encompasses the cities of Wollongong, Shellharbour, Shoalhaven and the town of Kiama. The central region contains Lake...

 area (35° S) 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 Nambour, Queensland

Nambour, Queensland

The area now known as Nambour, was first settled in 1870. The town was then called Petrie's Creek. In 1890 the Maroochy Divisional Board was established...

 (26° S).

Description

Cryptocarya microneura, known as the Murrogun is a small or medium sized tree to around 25 metres tall and 30 cm in diameter.

The bark is grey and somewhat corky on small trees, or greyish brown and scaly on larger trees. The trunk is often irregular or fluted in shape.

Leaves are alternate and simple, with a long blunt point at the tip. Upper surface glossy dark green, under surface paler green.

Flowers appear from September to November, being cream, unscented and in panicle

Panicle

A panicle is a compound raceme, a loose, much-branched indeterminate inflorescence with pedicellate flowers attached along the secondary branches; in other words, a branched cluster of flowers in which the branches are racemes....

s. Flowers are finely downy.

The fruit is a 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...

. Shiny, black and pointed. 12 mm in diameter with faint vertical ribs. Eaten by rainforest birds including the Topknot Pigeon

Topknot Pigeon

The Topknot Pigeon is a pigeon native to Australia. It is also known by the name of "Flock Pigeon".-Description:...

. Like most Australian Cryptocarya

Cryptocarya

Cryptocarya is a genus of evergreen trees belonging to the Laurel family, Lauraceae. The genus includes more than 350 species, distributed through the Neotropic, Afrotropic, Indomalaya, and Australasia ecozones.-Overview:...

fruit, removal of the fleshy aril

Aril

An aril is any specialized outgrowth from the funiculus that covers or is attached to the seed. It is sometimes applied to any appendage or thickening of the seed coat in flowering plants, such as the edible parts of the mangosteen and pomegranate fruit, the mace of the nutmeg seed, or the...

is advised to assist seed germination.

Cryptocarya microneura is a larval host plant for the butterflies Chaetocneme beata, Netrocoryne repanda and Graphium sarpedon.