Melicope elleryana
Encyclopedia
Melicope elleryana known as the Pink Flowered Doughwood or Evodia is a species of Australian rainforest
tree in the Rutaceae
family.
tree growing to 25 metres tall and a diameter of 60 cm. The natural range is from the Clarence River
(29° S) in New South Wales
to tropical northern Australia
. It is also found in New Guinea
and the Solomon Islands
. The Pink Flowered Doughwood is usually found in riverine rainforest
areas.
The trunk is almost white, of a doughy appearance, with a thick layer of soft corky dead bark. The trunk is slightly buttressed or flanged at the base.
The opposite leaflets are in threes, mostly ovate. 6 to 13 cm long, tapering to a blunt point at the tip. This tree is the favoured food plant for the spectacular Ulysses butterfly, Papilio ulysses
.
springing from the old leaf axils. Individual flowers are 3 to 4 cm long, and form from January to March.
The fruit is two to four cell dry cocci. They mature from July to December, spitting down one side exposing a single shiny black flattened seed, 4 to 5 cm long. Germination is unpredictable, starting within 30 days or taking several years. Soaking the seeds for several days appears to remove some of the germination inhibitors.
Rainforest
Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...
tree in 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.
Habitat and description
A small to medium rainforestRainforest
Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...
tree growing to 25 metres tall and a diameter of 60 cm. The natural range is from the Clarence River
Clarence River
Clarence River may refer to:* Clarence River , in northern New South Wales, Australia* Clarence River , rises in the Yukon Territory of Canada and crosses the border several times into the U.S. state of Alaska...
(29° 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 tropical northern 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 is also found in New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
and 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...
. The Pink Flowered Doughwood is usually found in riverine rainforest
Rainforest
Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...
areas.
The trunk is almost white, of a doughy appearance, with a thick layer of soft corky dead bark. The trunk is slightly buttressed or flanged at the base.
The opposite leaflets are in threes, mostly ovate. 6 to 13 cm long, tapering to a blunt point at the tip. This tree is the favoured food plant for the spectacular Ulysses butterfly, Papilio ulysses
Papilio ulysses
The Ulysses butterfly , also known as the Blue Mountain Butterfly or the Blue Mountain Swallowtail is a large swallowtail butterfly, endemic to Australasia.This butterfly is used as an emblem for Queensland tourism....
.
Flowers, fruit and germination
Flowers form in a cyme or paniclePanicle
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....
springing from the old leaf axils. Individual flowers are 3 to 4 cm long, and form from January to March.
The fruit is two to four cell dry cocci. They mature from July to December, spitting down one side exposing a single shiny black flattened seed, 4 to 5 cm long. Germination is unpredictable, starting within 30 days or taking several years. Soaking the seeds for several days appears to remove some of the germination inhibitors.