Daphnandra melasmena, commonly known as the Socketwood, or Black-leaved Socketwood 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 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...

. It grows on the more fertile basaltic soils, often associated with the White Booyong. Found from near Bowraville, New South Wales

Bowraville, New South Wales

Bowraville is a small town in the Mid North Coast hinterland of New South Wales, Australia in Nambucca Shire.The town invites some tourists with such things as a folk museum, a war museum, a historic theatre, and other historic features. It also invites new residents with its scenic beauty and...

 in the south to the Tweed Valley further north. A small to medium sized tree growing to 20 metres tall with a stem diameter of 30 cm.

Daphnandra melasmena was first described by ornithologist Richard Schodde

Richard Schodde

Richard Schodde, OAM is an Australian botanist and ornithologist.Schodde studied at the University of Adelaide where he received a BSc in 1960 and a PhD in 1970. During the 1960s he was a botanist with the CSIRO Division of Land Research and Regional Survey in Papua New Guinea...

 in 2000, having been known previously as Daphnandra sp. D. The specific epithet melasmena is derived from the Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

, referring to the leaves and stems turning black on drying.