Endiandra muelleri 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 of 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...

. Its habitat is in warm temperate rainforests on poorer soils. Distributed from the Allyn River

Allyn River

The Allyn River is a river of the state of New South Wales in Australia. It originates in the World Heritage Barrington Tops region, flowing through Antarctic Beech high altitude rainforest. And then through lower altitude sub tropical rainforest including trees such as Red Cedar and Small leaf...

 in the Barrington Tops region in the south to Kroombit Tops

Kroombit Tops National Park

Kroombit Tops is a national park in Central Queensland, Australia. Located between Monto and Calliope in The Boyne Valley, it is 399 km northwest of Brisbane. Cania Gorge National Park is located approximately 25 km to the south....

 to the north in central 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...

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Common names include Muellers Walnut or Green-leaved Rose Walnut. The tree is not a walnut, being a laurel

Lauraceae

The Lauraceae or Laurel family comprises a group of flowering plants included in the order Laurales. The family contains about 55 genera and over 3500, perhaps as many as 4000, species world-wide, mostly from warm or tropical regions, especially Southeast Asia and South America...

. It is named after the prolific colonial botanist, Ferdinand von Mueller

Ferdinand von Mueller

Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, KCMG was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist.-Early life:...

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Subspecies

There are two types of Endiandra muelleri, this plant E. muelleri subsp. muelleri and the endangered Endiandra muelleri subsp. bracteata. For the differences in the sub-species, see Endiandra muelleri subsp. bracteata

Endiandra muelleri subsp. bracteata

Endiandra muelleri subsp. bracteata, is a rare rainforest tree growing in eastern Australia. Listed as endangered by extinction.It is a sub species of the tree known as Green-leaved Rose Walnut, or Mueller's Walnut, Endiandra muelleri...

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Description

Endiandra muelleri subsp. muelleri is a tree reaching 30 metres tall with a trunk diameter of 75 cm. The base of the tree may be buttressed and flanged. The brown bark is irregular, with craters, depressions, and loose plates of bark. Leaf bearing twigs are green coloured with fine flat straight hairs. New shoots feature bright pink or red leaves and fawn coloured hairs.

Leaves are 6 to 12 cm long, 3 to 5 cm wide. Green, shiny and smooth on both surfaces, paler beneath. Leaves broad lanceolate to elliptic in shape with a leaf stem from 3 to 6 mm long. Occasionally one to four hairy tufts or bumps are seen on the underside of the leaf, next to the joining of leaf veins and mid vein on Endiandra muelleri subsp. muelleri.

Flowers, fruit and regeneration

Greenish pink flowers form on 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 from the leaf axils in the months of November to January. With Endiandra muelleri subsp. muelleri, the perianth lobes are hairy on the outside. The fruit is blackish/dark blue 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...

, 15 to 25 mm in length. Maturing from March to April. The fruit is eaten by a variety of birds, including the Rose-crowned Fruit Dove, Regent Bowerbird

Regent Bowerbird

The Regent Bowerbird, Sericulus chrysocephalus is a medium-sized, up to 25 cm long, sexually dimorphic bowerbird. The male bird is black with a golden orange-yellow crown, mantle and black-tipped wing feathers. It has yellow bill, black feet and yellow iris...

, Superb Fruit-Dove

Superb Fruit-Dove

The Superb Fruit Dove , also known as the Purple-crowned Fruit Dove , is a medium-sized , colourful fruit-dove in the family Columbidae....

, and Wompoo Fruit-Dove

Wompoo Fruit-Dove

The Wompoo Fruit Dove , also known as Wompoo Pigeon, is the largest of Fruit Doves native to New Guinea and Australia.-Description:...

. It is advisable to remove the flesh from the seed before sowing. Germination occurs after around two months.